


Red Alert

by Gadeshua (KerryLamb)



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Devil May Cry - Freeform, Drabble Sequence, F/M, Halloween, Halloween Challenge, Horror, Hunters & Hunting, Jekyll and Hyde, Vampires, Were-Creatures, Werewolf Sex, What's going on, Worst-Case Scenario Challenge, Zombies, lose lose scenario
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-01
Updated: 2017-05-17
Packaged: 2018-08-28 08:34:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 21,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8438689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KerryLamb/pseuds/Gadeshua
Summary: The Enterprise come across an abandoned ship that has its distress call still transmitting. Unable to access the computer back from its system or glean any cause for what might have happened to her crew, Spock, Uhura and a few others beam aboard to search for clues but they learn far too late that the call wasn't for an SOS but a quarantine. DRABBLE FIC with lots of jumps and smut.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TomFooleryPrime](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TomFooleryPrime/gifts).



> So I'm still working on this jazz but I hope to have it done by the end of the month and in three chapters.

Nyota startles at the scream, bumping herself further over onto Spock as he sits nonplussed by the sight before him. “ Oh my god!”

 

Spock glances down at her tortured face and rubs at her arm as the screaming in the background continues. Nyota’s face morphs from fright to disgust as the squishy, wet sound of flesh being chewed emanates from the speaker system.

 

“ Ugh, gross…” she gags. She wrinkles the bridge of her nose and shakes her head. “ They should have double tapped.”

 

“ Would you like to stop?” he asks, looking back to watch the zombie gurgle hungrily above the hapless victim. The hand Spock has around her has become more purposeful in its movement and now seeks to caress the curve of her waist.

 

Nyota shakes her head again, this time with a chuckle as Spock continues to view the movie and creep his fingers over her side. “ You’ve been reading up on Terran history again, Spock?”

 

He bats his dark eyes over and away, tilting his head in mild amusement as he goes on innocently. “ I do not know to what you are referring.”

 

“ You're slowly starting to fondle your frightened girlfriend as the two of you watch a scary, gore-fest, that’s what.” she smirks pushing her elbow into his side.

 

“ You are not my girlfriend.” he rebuffs, avoiding her earlier question. “ I feel as if I must constantly remind you of the corollary of our bonded status. Would you prefer to be my girlfriend instead of my bondmate?”

 

“ Hey horn dog answer my question!” she giggles as his hand slips between her arm. He gives the soft mounds she tries to protect a quick squeeze while still staring ahead. He only stops when she pushes her hand across his face.

 

Nyota sucks at her teeth and smirks. Her reprieve is short lived, however; he's pawing at her again as soon as she looks back at the screen. “ Stop that! Quit dodging me! You read up on more Halloween traditions, didn’t you?”

 

“ I may have _perused_ the databank for 4.35 standard hours or more, for a deeper study of the American aspect of that phenomenon. And perhaps I made it a point to _research_ the cultural aspects of such fall solstice celebrations, none of which were found to be logical.”

 

“ While ancient Americans may not be logical, Hallow’s eve doesn’t have to be.” Nyota shrugs. “ There are plenty of things to enjoy.”

 

“ Such as?” Spock prods with a gentle swipe of his thumb at her shoulder.

 

“ Well there’s dressing up in costumes.” she starts, ticking off points with her hand, starting with her thumb. “  And doesn’t love an excuse to dress up as something fun or spooky?”

 

Spock blinks mildly at the screen as the protagonists, now within the gates of an abandoned theme park, realize they’re trapped inside by the growing wave of undead masses. His eyebrow lifts slightly as the remaining survivors gather up makeshift arms and secure their positions.

 

“ Most costumes that I observed in the database during the 21st century were not only culturally insensitive but overtly sexual in nature. No accredited medical practice would take on such a scantily clad nurse nor can I believe that any humans would take a member of law enforcement seriously if they were dressed in nothing more than a bikini, badge and handcuffs.”

 

Nyota laughs but Spock folds his brow at the sound of it, since he takes the matter seriously. “ Neither male or female uniform had a phaser to their person and could be easily rendered disabled.”

 

“ Ok, what about haunted houses and ghost stories?”

 

“ I do not see the appeal of allowing yourself to be frightened. Even as we watch this particular ancient cinema, it is hard for me to comprehend the excitement you gain in viewing it.”

 

“ It’s fun to be scared when you know there’s no risk to it. Watching movies where someone has to make it out alive and putting yourself in their shoes is thrilling as it is goosebump inducing.”

 

“ Goosebump?” he queries, sparing a glance away from the mauling currently being projected across their wall.

 

“ Yeah, these.” Nyota smiles, clarifying. She guides his hand across her bicep, letting the pads of his finger tips linger over the chill-pimpled flesh of her skin. Spock taps lightly against her nervous system and is intrigued to find that even when exposed to the heat of his body, Nyota shivers and shakes every so often as if cold.

 

Moving his hand, Spock explores further, noting her pupil dilation, the rate of heart and respiration, the dryness of her mouth and the slow stop on her digestion. She is in a state of fear but her mind is strangely at ease, ignoring the flight or fight response. He feels her joy of it, the tiny sparks of extra energy and adrenaline pulsing through her as she watches the film unfold before her. It is perplexing, this voyeuristic delight she takes in watching the horror vid.

 

“ Fascinating.” he concedes, rubbing her arm.

 

Nyota is pleased by his sudden concession and presses on. “ And there’s also trick or tricking!”

 

He huffs in disdain. “ The act is no more than a bribe, dressed up as an innocent request. It was also documented to led to the wasteful use of eggs and toilet paper.”

 

She groans up towards the ceiling and throws her hands up into the air. “ What alien, Vulcan or otherwise, would have a problem with getting free candy!?”

 

Spock lifts a single brow just as rapid gun and phaser fire sound off from the heros’ last stand in a local bar. “ Candy has it’s own logic. It boosts morale.”

 

“ Yeah and your waistline…” she teases, poking at his small softness growing near his sides.

 

Spock growls in his throat and dismisses her with a huff, leading Nyota to apologize with a barely suppressed giggle. “ Sorry, baby, I’m not trying to hurt your feelings. Besides I have no room to judge.” she chides herself, pinching at her own soft side.

 

“ You carry all of your weight quite well, in my humble opinion.” he says with grope at her backside. “ I would be inclined to feed you more candy.”

 

Nyota squeals in mock outrage and pushes up against his chest but Spock uses her shifting frame to his advantage and pulls her onto his lap, leading to more squealing and groaning.

 

“ You are hopeless! Unhand me!” Nyota barks at him, trying to wrangle herself free. He tickles her sides as he knows she likes and buzzes with pleasure at the sound of her laughter.

 

“ You are laughing at me.” he says softly with a mirth of his own. “ You do not want me to.”

 

“ Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t let me go.” she chuckles. She squeals again in unison with the heroine in the movie as they both accosted by males at their faces. While the zombie roars in the face of his victim, Spock merely hums and soothes his cheeks against hers.

 

“ A double negative, k’diwa? Perhaps I should take you to bed? You are awake past your bedtime.” he mumbles against her neck, ignoring the screeching female racing across the holoscreen.

 

Nyota swallows and cups his face as he makes a more thorough investigation of her shoulders and chest. “ I don’t want to go to bed. I want to finish the movie.” she whines.

 

“ It’s only scaring you. I think you would find me much more entertaining.” he drawls glibly. His hands are busy crawling underneath her shirt as Nyota peers over her shoulder to continue watching the movie. Sullen and frustrated with her inattention Spock joins her movie viewing though his hands are busy with a plan of their own.

 

The woman had been with her lover inside of a car when her mate had been attacked from behind in a flurry of bites and growling and left her half clad and braless as she ran through the darkened forest away from the groaning masses.

 

“ An unbelievable scenario.”

 

“ What? The zombies? Of course it’s unbelievable.”

 

“ On the contrary, it was her escape that I was referring to. She would have been apprehended at the same time as her lover.” he comments mildly. “ She is also expending an absurd amount of energy screaming. Anyone who would have helped her would have answered by now.”

 

“ Well, you have a point-SPOCK!”

 

In his rebuttal, Spock had pushed Nyota’s shirt up and her camisole down and latched his mouth down around her breast. Nyota squirmed fitfully as he suckles hungrily and pulls them both down onto the couch.

 

“ Spock!” Nyota whines again with her face contorted in tortured pleasure. Her hands are busy pushing at his chest but her hips rock with a mind of their own. “ I told you I wanted to watch the movie!”

 

“ I will not stop you from doing so.” he rasps in a husky voice, releasing her from his mouth. “ Please do continue.”

 

She starts to sit up when he fastens his mouth onto her other nipple and hums in hedonistic glee. “ Spock! Oh my God, you are just the- I...I…”

 

Nyota falters with her words as she tries, ineffectual, to bat away his hands from her underwear. “ Dirty dog!”

 

“ Your dog.” he teases her, licking slowly at her nipple. “ Your beast.”

 

She hmphs at him and grabs at his ears. “ If you’re going to be naughty, I’m not going to give your halloween candy…”

 

He pauses immediately and stills his hands. “ What is it that you have?”

 

She smirks at him as she leans over towards the coffee table and rummages through her purse. There in the open gold wrapper, half covered by the odds and ends inside her bag, are two long chocolately bars of his favorite confection. Spock sits up and holds his breath. 

 

“ Nyota…” he groans peering over at her hands as she draws one out into the open.

 

It is bitten in half but Spock has no qualms with eating after her. Especially _that_. “ Nyota.” he calls again and she cackles at his pleading tone. “ Now, now. I don’t like it when dogs beg. Speak boy.”

 

Spock pinches his mouth together and narrows his eyes. “ May I please have-”

 

Nyota dangles the bar in front of his face and drops it down into his mouth. Spock startles at her sudden offer but closes his mouth over the chocolate coated caramel cookie and chews with half lidded eyes.

 

As he eats, Nyota pulls the other wafer free, biting it at her leisure as Spock tries to consume his portion quicker. She can feel his desire for the candy nagging at her mind and tries to hide her glee from what she plans to do. Sensing her actions he sits up and reaches for the confection but its too late. Nyota stuffs the rest of the chocolate into her mouth.

 

Spock looks at her in disbelief with the hero on the screen yelling in agony. “ You thief.”

 

Nyota smirks at him and shrugs coyly, licking her lips as she rights her shirt and camisole. “ Serves you right, molesting me and mocking halloween.”

 

Spock rises up onto his elbows and glares at her. “ I am still hungry.”

 

Nyota quirks a brow and gives him a pitiful face. “ So am I. I shouldn’t have shared.”

 

He studies her for a moment before grabbing her by the waist and flipping her around. “ Hey!”

 

Nyota grabs a hold of his knees for balance as he yanks her back until her underwear clad sex is butted against his chin. She shivers at the faint brush of air as he peels the fabric away and exhales with a growl. “ Down boy! What are you planning on back there.”

 

“ Just drawing inspiration from the movie.”

 

Spock snakes his tongue out, delicately ruminating over the taste of her cream with that of the candy bar. “ Do you know how much you enhance the flavor of the caramel notes, k’diwa? Truly delectable.”

 

She shivers and sits back on his face with an angry huff. “ Spock! Stop it, you perv!”

 

He ignores her, drives his tongue inside her, arching briefly off the couch as her nails dig into the skin of his legs.

 

“ No one sixty nined in this movie.” she grumbles playfully. “ I believe you’re thinking of the wrong type of film…”

 

“ Perhaps…” he concedes as he feels her pawing him length free of his boxers. “ But there were some who were ‘eaten alive’.”

 

“ I’d like to see you try.” she smirks giving the base of his lok a gentle squeeze. He hisses at her as she runs mouth across the bulbous head and tightens his grip at her waist. “ You would see me do more than try, Nyota.”

 

“ Not before I suck you dry.” she threatens darkly.

 

The sounds they make mix in with the remainder of the movie, so much that it’s hard to discern the reality from fiction. Growls, groans and screaming are all the same in the end and everyone, whether on screen or in the room dies a little death in some form before they’re summoned to the bridge.

 

\-------------------

 

_6 days later_

 

Kirk draws raggedly at the air as he skids to a stop in the darkened hallway. It's unnervingly empty, the only noise to be heard is the blare of the klaxon horn as it drones across the ship. The flashing white of the beckons above play tricks with his eyes, mixing with the muted ruby light of the red alert and the gray shadows littered throughout the deck.

 

He's not expecting to see anyone and hopes that he doesn't. He ordered everyone to their quarters including security, effectively putting the ship on lockdown until further notice. Something was tearing its way throughout the ship and Kirk fears that it might actually be the crew itself.

 

How many of them were truly left? How many of them were...

 

The telltale swoosh of the turbolift doors opening alert him he's got company. With a quick glance around the corridor and Kirk spies the jefferies tubes and clamors between them as quietly as he can. It's a tight fit, even more so because he's sharing it. “ Fancy seeing you here.” He jokes wearily, trying to lighten the dire mood.

 

He’s not surprised to someone already hiding there, however he is surprised of who it is.

 

Yeoman Rand’s blue eyes flash brightly in the emergency lighting as she turns from her seat on the floor to fully face him. “ Captain!” she whispers hoarsely.

 

A smile plays across her lips but it wavers as she takes in his haggard appearance. She seems to be similarly state of fatigue, her mascara running and her lipstick half smudged, half worn away.

 

She extends her arms and reaches for him with her mouth as wide as her eyes. Kirk drops to his knees and gathers the terrified crewman, reflexively rubbing her arms, to try and soothe the tension.

 

Janice shuffles in his hold, clawing at his tunic as she frantically tries to gain his attention. Her voice comes out in a shrill whisper, louder than he’s sure intended. “ Captain, thank God! I didn’t know where everyone had gone, if there was anyone _left_! The bridge...oh God it was awful! I thought you had been...”

 

She chokes and bites at her lip, suddenly overwhelmed by the anxiety she had been feeling. “ Oh God, Leslie was in _pieces_ ! On the _wall_! And Chekov was…” she gags aloud and pushes him back away from her as she swallows back her bile. Kirk allows the distance but doesn’t let her go as the Yeoman tries to get her roiling stomach under control.

 

When she settles, he gives her a soft but pointed shake to draw her attention to his face. “ Rand, I need to know how many did you see? How many dead? Who you couldn’t account for.”

 

“ We need to abandon ship!” she pleads tearfully.

 

“ Yeoman, tell me how-”

 

“ No Captain! Jim, we have to go!” she growls at him with a shake of his shoulders. “ We’re not going to survive the next shift if we stay aboard! Sulu looked like a _chew toy_ but he...he was still moving...he called to me but I le...I left him! I don’t know what did that to him...or how he could still be moving after all that.”

 

Kirk nods and squeezes at her shoulders again. “ It’s alright. Who knows what would have happened if you stayed at the time. The bridge is compromised.”

 

Rand swipes angrily at her face and shakes her head fiercely, freeing what strands remained pinned on top of her scalp. “ No! No! No! It’s not alright! He wouldn’t have left me! If he had been in my shoes-”

 

“ He wasn’t in your place, yeoman. He was dead or dying and as much as I commend you for virtuous thinking in trying to save him, we have to think of the others that might be alive on this ship and informing starfleet to quarantine both the Red October and the Enterprise. We can’t have what ever this is spreading. If we evacuate we could be potentially damning others to our fate. As Spock would say, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”

 

Janice’s face collapses with a strickened expression Kirk has never seen on anyone’s face in person. It was that look that characters make in the holovid movies when they finally encounter the thing that had been chasing them face to face. “ Captain, the commander…”

 

Kirk brightens at her mention of the Vulcan, shakes her by the arms in excitement. “ Spock! Did you see him?!”

 

The Yeoman bites her lip tearfully and nods with a jerk. Kirk smiles for the first time in days and sighs in relief as his mind calculates their odds.  With Spock’s help, maybe now they could get their communications array back online and be able to not only send out but receive messages from starfleet. “ Great! Where was he? How is he?”

 

They wouldn’t have been so bad off, if half of them weren’t missing and the other lining the floors of sick bay.

 

Uhura was still out of commission and the rest of her department was lining the walls in the morgue. If only they could wake her from her coma. But with Spock in tow they had a chance in fixing the communications console and get a hold of the situation. “ Tell me! Where did you see him?! Where did you-”

 

Kirk silences himself and he turns his head towards the loud clang that echoes ominously down the hall. Skittering footsteps thump quickly over the screaming blast of the alarm, rapid and pacing, studying, scouting.

 

Hunting.

 

The steps boom closer along with the sound of claws clicking on the aluminum floor. Whatever is out there pauses every so often and scratches at the wall. The sounds trickle over themselves that Kirk can’t tell if its one or many but the noises are moving towards them.

 

Janice glances at him with her lips parted to speak but he quickly moves to cover her mouth and gives her a quick shake of his head. Not now, they couldn’t speak now or else they would-

 

A growl, low and crackling, combs through the air and Kirk fights his body to stay still in the face of the noise. It’s not a sound he’s ever heard before but his instincts know a baddie when he hears it. Whatever is out there, would probably benefit from him not being alive. Anything that wasn’t suppose to be on the ship always did.

 

The growl comes again, closer this time and a shadow falls between the tubes. Kirk leans him and the yeoman back away from the tubes against the wall, staring ahead to the shadow pasted on the wall adjacent to them. With every flash of the emergency lighting the shadow grows in size. It’s shape was hard to catch and even harder to discern but whatever it was, its smell is horrific, like blood, wet dog and something he can’t quite put his finger on mentally.

 

A grunt followed by the disturbing groan of twisting mental fills the air and Kirk grits his teeth to force himself silent. What was that thing?! What in all the alpha quadrant was strong enough to bend jefferies tubes by hand?

 

Janice stiffens next to him and shivers in his hold, with a look that terrifies him as she glances over to the right over his shoulder. The short hair along the back of his neck slowly rises up as his eyes join hers and catch sight of the long black muzzle creeping up beside him.

 

The nose at the end flares it’s nostrils and exhales with a growl. Silently, the yeoman closes her eyes and cries onto his hand below. Kirk freezes as the muzzle swings slowly over in his direction and sniffs once more.

His hand falls away from her mouth as he backs away but he pauses as Janice grabs his shoulder. Turning his head Kirk pales at the name she mouths and the direction in which she points.

 

\----------

_6 days earlier_

 

Spock flexes his hand for the fourteenth time, looking over the play of healing skin and muscle before glancing over to where Christine was the logging data onto his chart. As if sensing his gaze the pale blue of her eyes skim over in the direction of his bed and blink rapidly in surprise. He is uncertain as to why.

 

“ You’re awake! McCoy said not to expect you up until at least a full rotation had passed through. Must be that wonderful healing trance of yours.” she says, beaming brightly. Despite her cheerfulness she seemed worn if not stressed. Her eyes did not fully fold into crescents and her close mouth smile was wan. It was an odd behavior for her, at least from what he could note. Nurse Chapel was an acquaintance but not one he could call familiar. What was troubling her?

 

Spock blinks languidly as he strains to sit up, noting the distinct lag in the withdrawal of his nictitating membranes. His muscles feel recently taxed, as if he had been running...not a spirit but a marathon. Moving as gently as he was, they still protested being stirred into action. A quick internal catalog of his systems found him with a heavy buildup of lactic acid that had yet to be expelled and hypothalamus recently triggered. A flight or fight response had been issued but why?

 

He’s not sure which disturbs him more that his cerebral cortex did not supercede the basal reaction or that when his sympathetic nervous and adrenal cortical systems fired he apparently saw no reason to suppress them.

 

After a moment of stiff arm shuffling, Spock gives up on sitting up in the bed and settles for laying down with the pillow propped up higher behind his back. Just that small series of movements alone tax him to the point of near exhaustion once he back against the bed.

 

It is not sound to be so tired without reason, but my body tells me a story otherwise. I cannot recall red alert or even an emergency being brought to our attention...

 

His eyes are still half covered by both lids when he finally croaks aloud. “ What has happened?”

 

At that the nurse’s expression takes on a more fitful demeanor. “ You mean you don’t remember? We were hoping that you would tell us what went wrong...”

 

\--------

 

_2 days later_

 

“ Why are you all standing here?”

 

Uhura and Scotty shush Sulu as the wave him over to join him. He comes between him and follows their gaze over to Spock hunkered over his meal.

 

No one has joined him but the whole table is littered with trays both full and empty, every one of them smelling of roast beef.

 

“ Is...is the commander starting to eat meat?” Hikaru asks. He feels silly even asking but for all his eyes are telling him he mind is steadily denying it.

 

“ We’re just as confused as you are. Canna understand why he would suddenly pick up the urge to.” Scotty quips, shrugging his shoulders.

 

Uhura just stares ahead as if she’s seen a ghost, not even bothering to close her mouth.

 

Sulu shifts his direction closer to where Montgomery is standing and gasps aloud. “ Is that even medium rare?”

 

The engineer shakes his head in disgust and throws up his arms in defeat. “ Iffin that was the only thing that would disturb me. He’s eaten at least six of those that I’ve seen. Uhura said she seen ‘em eat three rack of lambs and five bacon cheeseburgers before that. I mean where in the world can all of that go?! Take about prolific eater.”

 

“ If you’re going to sin, sin boldly.” Sulu quotes drily as Spock upends the beef stew with a single hand into his open mouth. “ Has he always eaten so...enthusiastically?”

 

“ I don’t know…” Nyota starts and pauses with a hand to her forehead.

 

Both men look over when she doesn’t continue and furrow their brows in concern. “ You alright?”

 

She nods her head before shaking it weakly. “ Yes...no...I mean I guess. I don’t know. I was so famished for lunch that I thought I could eat like Spock is doing right now but I can’t even finish this apple I’m so tired.”

 

“ Do you need to go down to sickbay? Something I think is going around. Maybe you caught a bug after the wacky away mission?” Hikaru says with concern.

 

She waves away his concern and nibbles at her lip. “ No, I don’t want to go but it’s against protocol not to if it could possibly be contiguous. I wouldn’t want the whole ship getting sick. Scans didn’t pick up anything after we were back aboard but maybe something slipped through.”

 

She rises from the table and gives them a weak smile. “ I’m going to request leave for the remainder of the shift. Maybe I’ll just make something in my quarters after some sleep if it turns out to be nothing.

 

“ I can walk you there?” Sulu offers, moving over to her side. Nyota blinks rapidly and startles as Spock appears between them. He glowers down at the helmsman until Sulu is forced to look away. “ I will escort you to where ever you need to go.”

 

She frowns and moves around him, piqued by his sudden appearance and rudeness. “ I can see myself to where ever I need to go, thank you both.”

 

“ I can escort you, lieutenant.” Spock repeats more forcefully. All of them notice the tight fist he has jammed against his side.

 

“ No, thank you commander, sir.” she says tersely, storming off towards the galley’s entrance. He follows her, not even giving a second thought to the twenty seven trays he leaves behind on the table as he follows her into the hall. “ Why do you deny me?”

 

“ Permission to speak freely?”

 

“ Granted.” he hisses between his teeth.

 

She glances around the corridor and glares up at his perplexed face. “ I do not take kindly to caveman tactics. Sulu is my friend and you embarrassed me with that stunt you pulled back there with getting between us. He’s married for god sakes! To a man I might add, so my precious little vagina is in harm of getting hammered by either of you!”

 

“ Me?” he asks quizzically, before he meaning dawns on him.

 

“ Yeah, you! If you think for one second I’m going to let you anywhere near my lady parts you have anything this coming to you! Get a grip and muzzle your jealousy, Spock!”

 

The Vulcan curled his lip momentarily in angry before smoothing his features into what Nyota could deem to be highly irritated. When he makes no other moves she exhales heavily with her hands through in the arm and storms off towards the tubrolift.

 

“ I am not jealous. Don’t judge me as a human male.” he huffs out at her back. Nyota ignores him as glances over her shoulder.

 

“ Take a shower and shave! You look like wet dog and smell even worse!” she spat, turning back towards the turbolift. “ And go clean your trays up!”

 

He leaves her to her task as he goes to do his our but allows the growl rising up in his chest to reverberate in his throat.

 

Sulu and Scotty continue to watch him as he comes back and goes about finishing his lunch. Neither one says anything about the strange golden color of his eyes when he stood between them and Nyota but they both think about it.

 

If only they had said something then, maybe McCoy could have caught the problem sooner. Even then, who’s to say that it would have stopped anything at all?

 

Or the others...

 

\---------

_1 day later…_

 

“ Nurse Chapel.” he tones warmly. Spock stands trimmly in the middle of his doorway, dressed for meditation but very much at ease. “ A welcome surprise.”

 

She notices his ‘cheery’ disposition right away, her sudden blush clear to any eye under the pale cast of her skin. “ Why yes. Hello. I was thinking...well, I don’t know, you haven’t seem like yourself lately, since the incident and perhaps,...well, maybe some plomeek soup might help speed your recovery?”

 

He looks her over as she speaks, his snapped still on hers once she finishes the serve run-on sentence she’s constructed. “ Plomeek soup?”

 

She nods at him while tucking a silvery blonde strand of hair behind her ear and propping up the covered bowl in her hand. The scent of her shampoo wafts over to him and the notes of rose, chamomile and honey are as distinct as her own. Spock salivates. “ Yes. If you don’t want it then I could-”

 

“ How fortuitous. I was just about to leave for the mess hall.” he drawls with a lazy blink.

 

Chapel smiles with the light shadow of crow’s feet forming near her eyes. “ Oh! Then no need to trouble yourself at all, I’ve got you set right here!”

 

“ You most certainly do.” he says, stepping to the side of his doorway. “ Would you like to accompany for dinner?  I will admit I am faminish and might need an additional helping.”

 

“ I wouldn’t mind at all Mr. Spock! So long as you didn’t.”

 

He smiles with his eyes, hands tucked behind his back as he inclines his head towards the table. “ Not at all. It was very thoughtful of you to bring me dinner.” he chimes.

 

As the door slides close with click, she has hardly put down the soup before Spock takes his first bite. By the time he finishes, there’s not a morsel left to be found.

 

\---------

_1 day before…_

 

Being back in her bed comforts her but her dreams as of late, leave Nyota feeling unsettled. Her body writhes against the sheets and her insides knot with sharp hunger pangs but no matter how much she eats it plagues her.

 

It’s never happened to her before, this never being sated but Nyota finds that minutes after she eats it feels as if she hasn’t eaten for days.

 

And her thirst! It’s as if she’s eaten nothing but salt and has nothing to flush it out of her mouth. The need of satisfaction shakes Nyota so much that she thinks she’ll die of it but then Spock comes to her as he always does, the bond between them denying neither mate anything of the other.

 

As soon as he touches her, the pain inside her eases and she sighs in relief and almost rest in peace. Her hunger pauses and her thirst observes him possessively as his touch evokes something within the pit of her stomach.

 

From there her perception morphs into something else, something darker, something basal.

 

She’s always asleep when he finally comes to her, nosing around at her pelvis and pawing gently at her stomach. His hands feel odd, strangely furred and overly large while the nose he stuffs against her sex is wet and cold like a hard sponge.

 

“ Spock.” she calls him but he never speaks to her aloud in these times. Only when she does so in her mind could Nyota feel him bound over towards her, enveloping her in a cloying blanket of territorial hunger. The lust that follows is different from what she knows of him as well, primal and elegant, as it floods her mind and her sex.

 

/ _Mine. Mate. Claim_./ he growls inside her head while pulling the sheets away and taking a long lick up her leg.

 

The reaction of his touch flares the hunger inside of her, making her ache all over and arch towards him with a whimper.

 

He hums loudly, making short work of her clothing before setting his mouth to work on her center. Spock had been insatiable lately, lapping at her like a starved man every night. She cries out at the first swipe of his tongue but greets each subsequent lick with a needy moan of approval.

 

Spock’s mouth is no longer the feels the same either, long and lupine, with a soft muzzle tickling at her thighs as he makes a feast of her. There’s no place he tongue doesn’t lick, no hole it doesn’t delve into to as he snarls at her every pleasured peak of completion. / Again! Come again! MORE!/

 

His gluttony spurs her on, drives her hunger to seek more sustenance no matter if she’s devouring food or cramming the whole of his lok between her thighs.

 

“ Fuck me!” she demands tugging at the strange fuzzy length of his ears and he growls out a yes that makes her body momentarily paralyzed in fright. She still half asleep with her eyes still sealed shut when Spock pulls her bodily by the ankle to her lay belly down over the side of the bed. She blinks blearily at the darkness of her room when his large, clawed hands come down around her hips. When the bizarre new shape of his lok fills her from behind she can’t help the happy little trill that spills out from her lips.

 

“ Yes! Oh God, Spock, yes!” she coos from where her head is arched up from the mattress and her nails dig into the sheets. He shifts his hips and she feels there more of him to be had, the slick, smooth glide of him pushing into her before bottoming out with his knot. “ Yes!!!”

 

He snarls triumphantly above her and takes her like she’s in heat, riding her at a rhythm that have both of them panting. As her backside smacks against him she can’t help but notice the velvety touch of his thighs and pelvis.

 

It feels like a pelt but it’s so tight to him it’s like a second skin. It’s then her mind tries to explain away all the new and strange sensations. Her Spock doesn’t have claws or a muzzle. There’s also that shaggy coat of fur and that seven inch tongue that has her toes curling that doesn’t make sense. She wouldn’t even get started on whatever the hell was going on between his legs. That situation was giving her heart palpitations and a serious case of swooning.

 

She figures that it’s a dream. That’s the simplest answer, right? He’s roleplaying for her, living out a fantasy that she had deep within her mind of them as strangers enthralled by passion. In this instance Spock is her werewolf and the suit that he wears is amazingly realistic. From the hot, furry weight of his body to the occasional brush of his tail against her legs he is every bit of what she thought he would be, a sexy beast who can’t help but have her.

 

“ Yes, Spock! Yes, yes, yes!” she cries out as the thick length of him brings her to a climax that has her vision spotting brightly. At the first wave of her spasming, he groans and howls above her, fully in character as her orgasm triggers his own. She clamps down fully on the fat girth of his lok as he grips fiercely at the fat swell of her backside, pulling her closer so he can fill her to as best she can manage. / MINE…./ he roars in her head like some crazed monster, jerking her bottom against him as he pinned her in place.

 

Like a cure for what ails her, the hot spurt of his release soothe the aching need dogging her mind and stomach. She coos blissfully at the rising of his knot, hissing loudly as it pushes her over the edge once more and trembling below him. “ Oh god, Oh fuck…”

 

Only then after they’re both spent does she find some break in the tension of her need.

 

It is, of course short lived, as he pulls himself free and picks her up for another round. It’s at times like this that she can tell his shape is altered, a single one of his hands holds her in the air with his fingers circling around her waist. The bed protests at his weight as he sits upon it and she praises him vocally at the feeling of fullness envelopes her again. So full, so deliciously, sinfully full. It's the only time she is after their scout mission aboard the Red October.

 

The ship there did something to her, to both of them. She's sure of it because it feels like they fuck for hours on end, night after loud, raucous night until the neither one can move and Spock’s body feels as it once did before her mind started playing tricks on her.

 

Even now when she looks at the reflection of them with her impaled upon his lap with her legs thrown over his arms, he looks like a wolfen hellhound with his cock sunk deep inside her. When Spock works himself into a climax once more she feels the bulk of it trickle down her rear and onto to his furred lap.

  
And when Nyota bites him when she comes she doesn’t see that her image is missing in the mirror.


	2. Don't trust anyone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More examinations of the crew.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shit, this is slowly looking like more than three chapters. Dammit, I doing the thing again.

Chekov rubs his eyes for the fourth time and blinks down at the stellar-cartography screen again. Stars and quasars blur their marks and bearings as he struggles to focus. Even with the pills his sleep has not returned and has been awake for four days.

 

He’s reticent to go and report his insomnia to McCoy, however. After the doctor’s initial physical and clearance of the unconscious away team, his patience has worn thin. The slightest comment could trigger his mood, swinging the southern gent from gruffly cordial to damn near psychotic.

 

He has been frightening everyone and a number of the crew have been finding themselves trying home remedies or lodging anonymous complaints towards the Captain. The doctor must have caught wind of their desire to place him on medical leave until further notice.

 

He waltz onto the bridge not 30 minutes ago, all lopsided smiles and the occasional scoff as he makes his apologies over his behavior towards the Captain, explaining away his odd disposition as stress.

 

“ Nothing more than trying to get to the bottom of what is plaguing the away team, Jim. The chicken’s in the car but the car won’t go and it’s got my pants in a bunch trying to figure out what it is and how it’s different symptoms in each patient.”

 

Kirk rubs as his jaw and nods knowingly with a sigh. “ I see how that could be frustrating, Bones, really I do. I’m glad you brought this up actually. I’ve been receiving a number of complaints against you but I feel this talk and you talking notice are showing me that things are running their chorus.”

 

“I know I’ve been...grouchier than usual, Jim but this condition the team has, this thing, it’s clinging to me and I can’t shake it! Sorry all the same. To you and everybody.”

 

He goes on with phrases meant to charm and persuade that Pavel has never heard before but he’s not fooled for a second.

 

Everything about the CMO is properly in its place but his eyes have no light to them. It seems no one else can see the difference but for Pavel it’s as stark as day and night.

 

“ Dybbuk…” he whispers under his breath and goes still as the doctor’s eyes bore into the back of his head at the faint sound of it. His flesh chills and pimples under his examination the same way it did when McCoy last did a physical on him. A chance glance over to the doctor in the med bay had Pavel staring back at something that wasn’t the doctor at all and whatever that thing was is looking at him again.

 

Chekov forces his hands to move and carry on with manning his station but the hair along the back of his neck refuses to lay down until McCoy draws his eyes back to Kirk with a chuckle.

 

His family, while all originally hailing from Russian, was a mix of cultures and faiths. His babushka and safta had a number of things that disagreed on, food, tending to the children, whether living on the lunar colonies was just as good as residing back on Earth but one thing that the two stubborn grandmothers readily bonded over were myths and superstitions. And the one that frightened Pavel the most, even to this day, was that of the evil undead, a ghost more or less, housed within the living.

 

And he could not shake the feeling that the doctor had one housed inside him.

 

Feeling was the wrong word, it was more like a conviction. He just knew but he could not or rather did not want to explore how he came to the knowledge.

 

All the signs were there. The eyes, the malevolent edge in the way he spoke, it was if all the softness that he knew McCoy had in spades had been rubbed away to the bone but hidden by the fact that no one could see inside him. This unnerves Chekov, near to the point of silence because he is able to see it.

 

The explanation that comes to mind for his newfound ability is another thing that his grandmothers’ scared him with. The only ones who could see the dead and the unseen realm were those who had-

 

“ Mr. Chekov, are you going to give us those coordinates or not?”

 

Pavel spins back in his seat and sees Kirk and McCoy and an intense looking Spock staring back at him. Kirk had already asked him once and from his unusual silence, he had drawn the attention of all three officers.

 

He shakes his head quickly and avoids the gaze of later two men and focuses on Kirk when he gives his answer. “ Sir, yes. Ve’re right on course for the Yorktown station.”

 

“ Very good. Mr. Sulu, could you give us an update for the ETA?”

 

“ Arrival back to the Yorktown station in 10 days, 4 hours and 15 minutes at warp factor 4, sir.”

 

The Captain nods with satisfaction back at the navigator and turns back to his XO and McCoy. “ Gentlemen, unless you have any objections or reasons behind changing our current speed, we’ll be back to the closest fleet station to report our findings on the Red October and order a survey ship to conduct further research on the abandon vessel. Bones I know there were a few things you requested for the med bay but nothing too pressing right?”

 

Spock nods his head and clasps his hands behind his back while McCoy shrugs a bit in typical agitation. “ I guess, Jim. There wasn’t anyone to treat back on that ship but all these weird happenings and I don’t know where the hell Chapel is but she can’t just up and walk off this tin can!”

 

Kirk nods solemnly while stares on impassively. Chekov swallows roughly as the feeling comes over him again. Something wicked is lurking within the Vulcan as well but it’s different from the doctor.

 

McCoy has been possessed and taken over by something while the first officer is seamlessly intertwined with something altogether different. It feels primal and organic, versus the gaseous, translucent energy that is bound within the doctor. As much as he wishes to warn the Captain, who does one go about telling their superior officer that they were in danger of things that were supernatural?

 

“ Captain, with your clearance I wish to study more of logs and distress call with the Lieutenant Commander.” Spock asks before the trio breaks for their posts.

 

“ Of course, anything to speed up cracking those logs would help us immensely. How are we going to find their people and report their demise if we can’t even figure out what happened? Permission granted.”

 

\----------  
The first night

 

Captain’s Log 3182.5

 

Three months out into our five year mission, we’ve received an automated transmission from a disabled vessel, the Red October or a rough translation thereof from communication’s finest Lt. Commander Uhura, was found in the gravitational well of a rogue planet, labelled Kepler 616.12x3.

 

According to our data logs and scans no lifeforms have ever been recorded there on the surface, native or otherwise. There is no signs of life aboard the ship as well but the distressed call has been transmitting for sometime now, two weeks by Mr. Spock’s estimation.

 

I’m ordering an away team to pull the records from the Red October’s logs and give a general inspection of the ship’s interior. Sensor arrays have had trouble scanning through the hull and beaming aboard has been a no go from whatever metal or material the ship was constructed with.

 

Mr. Spock will be leading the away team on the survey, with Ms. Uhura as his number one. The latter will try and a common syntax and phonology so we can translate the distress signal, Mr. Chekov will access their charts to pinpoint their origin while Mr. Scott will check over their ship’s systems. Mr. Sulu will pilot the team over and wait aboard the shuttle and report back to me every 15 minutes with updates as to progress. We plan to have the team docked for an hour with permission to extend the survey if deemed necessary by myself after review of the progress.  
Kirk out.

 

\--------

 

Nyota groans and rolls over on the biobed to get the cramp out of her neck. She’s so sore and she can’t recall as to why. Slowly her eyes blink open to the bright light of the med bay and McCoy’s worried face.

 

“ Leonard…” her cracks, breaking from misuse.

 

He shushes her and brings a cup of water to her lips with a hand propped behind her head. She swallows as neatly as she can but half of it still ends up spilling down her chin as her lips refuse to move. As refreshing and cool as it feels the bland taste of it does nothing to quench her need to drink more. She moans again and McCoy scrambles to bring a hypospray to her neck. “ It’s okay, sugar, I got you.”

 

At the vibrating prick pierces her skin her moan of pain turns to one of ecstasy. A delicious tingle runs through her, not unlike the giddy uninhibitedness one gets after a few sips of champagne. Yes, light, bubbly and refreshingly effervescent.

 

Her hands are moving without her knowing, pawing at his scrubs with more strength than she thought she was exuding as she pulled him down towards her. His scent combs over her lightly in an enticing plume of cologne.

 

She knows it from years of living in close contact and quarters but she’s never before noticed the notes of the doctor’s bouquet. It's warm and spicy, like sunshine and cinnamon and burns through her like the amber liquor he so often indulges in.

 

Her jaw clenches and she runs her the tip of her tongue over the plush rim of her lips. She wonders, seemingly out of nowhere, if he would taste like that rich, saccharine spirit of brandy. She doesn’t come back to herself until he clears his throat and rests his hand against hers. She blinks and shakes her head to clear the foggy sensation gathered there. Wow, hyposprays had never had that reaction on her before.

 

McCoy must have equally surprised because he’s shock still and staring down at her with wide eyes. He checks the hypo and shakes his head in confusion. “ Ok, this isn’t Orion spice but you certainly seemed to...uhh...well let’s just say I’m flattered but I like being alive and in one piece.”

 

He winks at her and she favors him with a weak smile as he jokes about her bondmate. “ How are you feeling otherwise, Uhura?”

 

“ Thirsty…” she croaks, looking around for Spock. “ Where is-”

 

“ Prince charming woke up just a few hours ago and is getting your cabin ready to receive you.” he smiles noting her vitals on his chartPADD. “ If you’re just dehydrated and cleared of contaminants, I’ll permit you to rest up in your quarters and report to the Captain about your time on the Red October.”

 

“ I would like that very much.” she smiles, turning her neck so he can administer the IV hypo. And that same orgasmic spark courses through her from the sting of the device but she digs her nails into her palm to suppress the urge to tackle McCoy again.

 

She didn’t think anything was wrong but neither did McCoy, after he touched her in the heat of the moment.

 

\-----------

 

“ What are you most afraid of?”

 

Scotty sighs and shrugs with a shake of his head. “ I can hardly tell you what I’m not afraid of, though I think I have a better handle on space than our doctor.”

 

Sulu chuckles through the comm link and with it the Chief engineer hears the sound of him clicking through the channels to see if any of the others are reporting in. After a moment he hears the helmsman punch through a system’s check for the Galileo, most likely to check on fuel as he uses some of the heat from its minute warp core to warm the shuttle’s interior. “ I played this game with the others and they all surprised me.”

 

“ Oh, how’s that then?” Scotty grunts while pulling at the Red October’s interior panelling to do a visual check of the manifold. Nothing about the ship appears to be out of sorts. In fact she was quite the pretty little thing if it weren’t for her darkened decks. He still gave thanks for some miracles though as at least dim blue emergency lighting chased a bit, if only a little, of the darkness away.

 

“ I was thinking most of them would have said, a physical thing, like a Gorn or a Klingon blood warrior but everyone gave me a mental hang up.”

 

Scotty pauses in his work with a thoughtful expression and hums. “ That is interesting.”

 

A light crunching noise sounds over the ear piece and Scotty smiles as he figures Sulu fished out some reserves from the storage bin. “ Yeah, Uhura had a thing about getting older and Spock after I explained to him it was just a game, spoke about a free of losing control. Chekov said he was afraid of something is Russian, I don’t know, I think it means ghosts or something, though he said it was mostly to do with the unexplained.”

 

“ And what are you afraid of Mr. Sulu, sir?” Scotty jests as he pushes the panel back in place. He moves onto a run a systems’ diagnostics of his own for the vessel through its engine core. There has to be some reason he can’t get the damn lights online.

 

“ Dying.” he sighs thoughtfully. “ I don’t know I feel like if I were to pass, it would somehow destroy my family. Not to sound egotistical or anything.”

 

“ No, sir. I absolutely understand, no need to explain yourself. You have your Beau and your lassie at home, waiting on your safe arrival every time we dock.”

 

Sulu sighs again and Montgomery hears he move his bag of food somewhere off to the side. “ I just don’t want that fear of me not coming home eating them alive.”

 

“ Aye, it’s hard to reconcile things of the mind with the heart.” he agrees, going over the engine’s log. Strange, it looks like it just up and stopped for no reason. Warp core was stable and functional, dilithium reserves were full and the nacelles were undamaged. Why the hell would they just up and-

 

Out of the corner of his eye, Scotty catches a blur of movement, a darker shadow within the darkness. A large blur.

 

He wheels around and peers around the deck. Empty and still. He grabs his flashlight from his utility belt and flashes it about the room. “ Oi, Mr. Sulu, report in on the location of the rest of the team.”

 

“ Copy that.”

 

Scotty slowly pads between the piping, ignoring the bone in his craw that tells him to hightail it out of there. “ C’mon, Sulu, wanna that I did it myself calling them, where are they?”

 

“ Everyone reported back just now. Spock is in the Captain’s quarters, Uhura is on the bridge going over the databanks there and Chekov there with her going over the manifest. Is everything alright?”

 

“ Aye.” Scotty groans in exasperation. “ It is, but I wouldn’t have you telling me ghost stories or tales of the boogey man right now whilst mucking about this ship. She’s got a strange kent to her.”

 

“ Ah, sorry to frighten you.” Hikaru chimes in through his comm. “ It’s halloween and I thought to keep everyone talking.”

 

“ Well, you’ll find me very much inclined to speak about sunshine and puppy dogs right about now.” he chuckles. He mops at his brow and starts to make his way back when another blur catches his attention followed by a loud thud from somewhere behind him. He whips around with a yelp and drops his flashlight in his haste, sending it skittering across the floor. “ Bollocks!”

 

“ What’s going on?”

 

Scott weaves himself through the pipes and rushes towards the light like a lifesaver. “ I’m starting to believe I might not be alone down here and I’ve bout wee’d my knickers!”

 

“ That’s not possible. No one has reported back moving on to another section and the only life signatures on the ship are…”

 

Scotty is huffing at the air and crouching with the wall to his back about time he reaches the flashlight, his eyes darting from one corner to the next when he begins to make his way back over to the console where he was running the diagnostic. His all tools lay out on the floor, in a circle around the console. “ Dammit man, finish ye sentences! How many life signatures are aboard the ship!”

 

“ Only three.”

 

“ But there are four of us on board! Who could have disappeared from the ship?! How even? We couldn’t even beam aboard!” he shouts into the comm, gazing wide eyed into the darkness.

 

“ I don’t know, I don’t understand...everyone’s still reporting in with audio...I just did a sound off with the others. Chekov, Uhura and Spock all answered and you're still yelling at me.”

 

Scotty clenches at his tunic, trying to slow his heart as he reaches with his other hand to locate his phaser. Something wasn’t right, nerves or not, he knew something was off. The console screen powers on at random with a high pitched whine and sends Montgomery squinting against the light. “ What the bloody hell…”

 

Through slitted eyes he glares at the screen below, trying to make heads or tails of broken LEDs. The whine screech falls into static and alien runes he can’t decipher flash up at his face. There’s a rapid spattering of symbols racing across the screen but none of them evoke any meaning to him. The text grows larger, as if it tries to emphasis itself, figuratively yelling at him in the bold print.

 

He sucks at the air with a frustrated huff and bangs on the side of the monitor. “ I can’t read this! Where’s Uhura when I need her!”

 

His heart is racing and he can’t catch his breath because he can’t explain it away. Who put his tools there and where did his bag go? What the hell where those shadows and more disturbingly, why only three life signatures?!

 

Scotty bangs on the monitor again and runs his flashlight through the room as he tries to get the universal translator to do something with the mess of jargon on the screen. “ Work, you pile of bolts!”

 

His eyes snap down to the screen as it flashes and recalibrates with a black screen. Slowly, letter by letter, standard words appear on the screen. His eyebrows furrow as he reads them each aloud. “ Trust...no...one…”

 

A scream pierces through his earpiece and has him holding his head in pain. “ SPOCK! HELP ME!”

 

“ Uhura! Come in! Report!”

 

“ Get away from me! SPOCK!”

 

Scotty swallows and starts to look for the door when a new message flashes across the screen to replace the other.

 

-RUN-

 

\---------  
4 days after being aboard the Red October...

 

Spock huffs loudly through his nose as he makes his way down the corridor towards the medical bay. It’s the last place he wants to be but he’s been ordered to report there.

 

Walking down the hallway is an onerous task in itself. His senses are unnaturally sensitive, picking up heartbeats, the scents of fear, lust and anger and lingering ailments clinging to the crew. It agitates him. It hungers him.

 

“ Goddammit!” _Crash_.

 

Spock pauses outside the clinic’s doorway before it can register his presence and slid open. He listens on, hearing the clatter of hyposprays and regenerators tumble down across the floor along with the frightened quail of a woman’s voice. Nurse Blu.

 

“ Doctor, please! There has to be an explanation that we haven’t found, some sort of mix up in the-”

 

“ That’s the third case this week! If this shit keeps up and we have anymore surgeries people are going to drop like flies from blood loss! Blood just can’t up and take off, but there’s no one seen coming or going on the security holo so what the hell happened?!”

 

Spock blinds thoughtfully at the Doctor’s query and anger. Curious to think that the ship’s blood stores were being depleted without any evidence as to who or what was affecting them.

 

Without any visual record, perhaps a passing rogue ship was leeching their supplies with the help of transporter technology. The rage McCoy was voicing however was new and...unsettling.

 

Of course the doctor was prone to bouts of irritability and was a natural pessimist but the Vulcan could not once recall him ever being truly angry. Disgusting, yet. Put off, most certainly. But furious? He could not recall being privy to such behavior.

 

Ms. Blu’s voice chimes against his ears, pulling his attention to the scene unfolding behind the door. “ Maybe it’s something we can’t see or-”

 

“ Whoever it is, I’ll make them pay with their own blood…”

 

“ Leonard, don’t say such things!”

 

“ I mean every word of it. Let them try and cross me again and I’ll drain them of the blood myself. You can bet on that, sugar. Bleed ‘em dry.”

 

Spock jerks at the statement and chills at its delivery. Devoid of his typical gruff but empathic carriage, the doctor’s voice took on an eerie detachment. It was nothing like the deranged passion of Nero or the crazed doggedness of Krall.

 

Something about it’s quiet power has Spock replaying the simmering fury that lay deeply rooted within the psyche of Khan. The mutant warlord had no qualms playing judge, jury and executioner and made and broke alliances at will.

 

As someone sworn to do no harm, hearing the blood chilling statement from the Chief medical office was disturbing to say the least.

 

Then again there’s that dark, angry itch inside him that wants more than anything to challenge McCoy. The strange desire for flesh at its freshest, when the muscle is hot and the blood is like cream eat at Spock but he largely ignores. Mostly...

 

Bile wells up within his throat at the thought of eating meat just as his mouth waters in anticipation of the same. There’s a growing duality within him that’s growing harder to suppress and even more difficult to explain.

 

When he’s around Nyota it’s near impossible to control himself. The urge to either mount her or assert his dominance is so strong, he feels as if he’s been taken over. It’s as frequent as his breath and just as necessary to indulge but it sickens him to think of what he is becoming. An eater of flesh, a drinker of blood…a thing that being that he is not.

 

Spock walks into the clinic and stares at the black orbs that were once McCoy’s bright eye while he glares back at the amber glow of the feral beast inside him. His nostrils flares and he sniffs at him. Whether it’s at Spock’s scent or his presence in general he can’t be sure.

 

“ Hmph, look who decided to show up. The Vulcan with the wolf in his belly.”

 

Tension builds inside the room enough that the nurse excuses herself, giving time for the Vulcan to pause and reflects over the doctor’s words.

The doctor gave him an idiom. One given to a person with a voracious appetite. Spock quirks a brow at the doctor but the beast inside of him wants him to display his teeth to the other malevolence it smells within him. It is weary of barking and wants to see who has the worst bite.

 

“ There’s no wolf in my belly, Doctor, though you’re free to look.” he hisses between his lips.

 

“ I intend too.”

 

At that Spock does flash his teeth and the beast inside the doctor flashes his.

 

\---------------

 

Nyota rubs irritably at the mirror’s surface and growls at the fogginess. “ What’s the matter with this!”

 

She’s been trying to clear the mirror for the past few minutes and nothing she does seems to clear the steam clouding the surface. “ C’mon!” she growls. She bangs at the reflective aluminum and stares back in shock at the dent her hand leaves behind. She looks from the dent to her hand, full of confusion when Spock comes out from the sonic shower and takes in her appearance. “ K’diwa?”

 

“ Spock...something feels off. I don’t feel like myself.”

 

He rubs vigorously at his hair with the towel around his head and Nyota's eyes rove over the long, lean figure of him. Again his smell tickles that yearning inside her, pulling in his scent, that clean, crisp scent of citrus and wood with the heat of fire. She licks her lips and digs her nails into her towel.

 

He pauses in drying his hair and observes her. A brightness comes over his eyes like a light within him and Nyota finds that it excites her. God, what was with her? She sighs with a smile and leans heavily on the countertop. " Sorry, I just.."

 

“ You have yet to recuperate from whatever it was that happened aboard the ship." Spock says finally answering her worry. " I will admit to being tired myself.”

 

She glances down at his groin and smirks. “ You could have fooled me, honey.”

 

Spock smiles with his eyes, not at all bashful of her inspection and blinks at her slowly. He's having as much trouble focusing as she is. Her mind is a haze of hunger and lust but she's bears down on it with the need to talk. Sensing her resolve, Spock straightened a bit and ignores their growing arousal. “ What is troubling you, beloved?”

 

Nyota smiles briefly at the pet name and bites at her lip. “ I can’t remember what happened.”

 

Spock gives her a small nod of understand when she finally speaks. “ Neither can I. It is unsettling.”

 

She watches an expression cross over his face and feels herself soften towards him. As a Vulcan Spock always remembers, whether he wants to or not. To have the loss of his memory must be more disturbing for him. “ Still no luck with the comms or datalogs?”

 

“ The comms have nothing but static recorded. The datalogs are still being defragmented.”

 

Despite his cool replies, the heat of his body and his desire beats at her from their bond and nearness. Nyota fidgets under his gaze and fights the urge to arch her back towards him. She entertains having her towel ride up along her curves to bait him into looking underneath. She doesn’t do it but the Vulcan looks at what the fabric doesn’t cover anyway. God the way he was looking at her was the same way when she had him stuffed down her thro-

 

Nyota shuts her eyes and rubs at her face, trying to clear her mind of the sexual tension growing between them. This is getting ridiculous. It was getting to the point that they couldn’t even have a conversation without sucking the other's face.

 

After retrieving her from the med bay Spock had been all over her and she had been just as hard pressed to keep her hands off of him. She had been so aggressive with him, wrestling to be on top and presenting her bottom to welcome herself up for knotting. He didn’t seem put off by it, in fact relished her feistiness as he used his superior strength to pin her and ravaged her until they were stuck fast and exhausted. It was the whole reason that they had to go to the bathroom to clean up. 

Her review of their bedroom activities doesn’t help matters as she spies Spock slowly taking himself in hand. After a pointed look, Spock unhands himself to focus on her concern. It was getting hard to think. “ I have asked the Captain to notify me when the as soon as the data becomes available.”

 

Nyota nods and shakes her head as a thought crosses her mind. “ Scotty? Chekov? Sulu! How are they? I didn’t see them in the med bay.”

 

“ They are all recouping as well. They too, cannot recall the events aboard the ship.”

 

Nyota exhales and rubs at her neck while staring down at the cool, grated metal below. “ Spock, what happened to us back there? No recollection. No logs. And every single one of us was out cold when the others found us aboard the ship.”

 

“ Remains.” he says quietly.

 

“ What?” she says not following.

 

“ There were no remains on the ship that Leslie or Hendorff could find on any of the decks. And scans continued to be unreliable as far as life signatures.”

 

“ What do you mean unreliable?”

 

“ Scans showed only two signatures. That of Leslie and Hendorff.”

 

She furrows her brows and shakes her head at him. “ We’re clearly not dead, Spock.”

 

He huffs at her and narrows his eyes at her. “ As I said, the scans were unreliable.”

 

Nyota’s jaw clenches as she takes in his tone and snarls right back at him. “ Don’t get an attitude with me.”

 

Spock steps closer, the towel falling behind him as he glares at her with bright brown eyes and his slanted brows coming into a fierce scowl. It wets her center immediately. “ Nyota, do not challenge me.”

 

His words are a warning as much as a plea. From their bond, she can feel him strangling to leash himself but her refusal to back down is testing him. Strange that her disagreement would have him react so carnally but she can feel his desire heighten from the way she baulked at him.

 

She glances over his torso and her teeth click together. “ Don’t tell me what to do…”

 

Quicker than she can track, Spock plants her firmly on top of the bathroom counter and claws at her towel with a snarl. She’s right there with him, reaching up to pull at his hair and yank his face down to kiss at him, though she could hardly call it a kissing. It’s more of them trying to devouring one another while trying to join themselves together. It’s ugly and artless but when he finally sinks back inside her, she laughs and groans ecstatically.

 

Spock growls into her shoulder and pulls her legs around his waist. " You are stubborn." he chuffs, sinking deeper and growing more crazed in his thrusts.

 

Nyota claws at his back runs her tongue along the crest of his ear. Good, _so good_ but how did they come to this? Verbal blows to their egos followed by pelvic ones into bliss. Her bottom squeaks loudly across the countertops as he pulls her bodily into his arms and back against the wall behind them with a thump.

 

He slips free in the jostling and she finds herself enraged at the sudden loss. “ Fuck me!”  
In her manic angry Spock looks different, his eyes brighter than she’s ever seen them and his body larger and stronger than she can remember. “ Are you deaf, dumb or both? I said. Fuck. Me.”

 

A deep, reptilian like growl escapes him as he holds her hips and surges back inside her. Nyota’s eyes roll back and her mouth falls open with a wanton cry. Never has Spock slid in to the hilt so smoothly. She gasps and holds her hands at his shoulders as he regains his rhythm and gives into her demands. “ Is this what you wanted? Do I please you now?”

 

“ Yes, God yes!” she whimpers, clawing at his shoulders. His knot is so pronounced that the popping sensation it makes with every movement in and out has her closing her eyes to focus on the new texture of his lok. Longer, wider and deliciously slick, Nyota takes every stroke he delivers. “ Spock…”

 

“ I need you…” he croons, staring into her eyes when she opens them next. “ love you…”

 

He tilts his hips and sends her into a fit of whining. “ Oh God, please…”

 

Spock uses one arm to brace her against him and uses the other to hold him up as he brings both of them to completion. He nips her on the shoulder as he comes and before she can stop herself she’s biting him back as hard as can. He growls at her with a pleased huff and leans up against the wall as his knot sets in place. This too feels different but she can’t focus over the smooth, burn of copper coating her tongue and throat.

 

Spock seems pleased to have her mark him but she feels like it’s different, necessary. Her earlier anger dissipates like a cloud leaving her in a fog of painless, pleasure. The taste of him is like swallowing sex.

 

When she finally pulls herself away she can feel Spock’s eyes watching her warily.

 

“ Are you scared...of me?” he asks, his eyes still bright with the color of molten gold.

 

“ No baby, no. I love you, Spock.” she gasps between his attentions. She caresses at his neck and he nuzzles his face into her shoulder. “ I am scared...as illogical as it is, I am frightened because I do not know what is happening to me.”

 

“ That makes two of us.” she said licking her lips from of his blood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Random fyi: Lok reference this story is Austin from Bad Dragon. Scotty's fear is new technology, Kirk's fear is a lose-lose scenario and I'm in need of reviews LOL. No pay for this, not that I want it, I just want to write to chill out and gas about Star Trek.


	3. M'su Diable

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kirk runs into a lot of trouble on the bridge and the med bay, Darwin tries to ward off the darkness when she encounters Nyota and Spock struggles to keep himself together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh god man, thank goodness only one more chapter. I don't know how TomFooleryPrime does it, she's like a writing machine! If you've ever read her work you'll know that it's clear and concise and with no typos to speak of while mine are...not so much LOL. Even more, she posts like 3 times a week! A week! /bows/ I bow down to the divine in you girlfriend cause wow.

“ Red alert! I repeat, Red alert!”

 

At the first call the klaxon alarms cry out and the lights flash white of the glowing red. The bridge is alive with movement but none of it towards manning stations or hailing the command of their Captain. It’s mayhem.

 

Blood splatters hotly across Kirk’s face and he ducks just in time to miss the swiping arm of...what...what is that thing?! He dodges to the left after feigning to the right and makes in just in time to the turbolift. As the doors slid close it seems like forever. He pulls at the lever, staring out onto the chaotic bridge as a number of creatures either fight amongst themselves or chase after him.

 

One of them howls, in a sound and pitch that’s so frightening that it makes the Khan’s death threats sound like grandmother lullabies. It’s after him, moving in a jerky lope that disturbs Jim on an instinctual level. It’s not natural, not right, whatever the hell that thing is. It’s moving at him in a huge, undefined shadow of black with round silver eyes that never once blink.

 

Jim yanks at the level once more as the creature howls again gaining speed and closing the distance between them. The sound of its voice sounds almost metallic, like metal scraping along a rusty grate. It’s nearly on him when the doors finally shut but Kirk reels backwards as the beast’s body impacts along the doors.

 

A grating noise fills the cabin at the creature claws at the doors and rips the metal along the exterior but Kirk is already shooting down towards his cabin and ready room. He had to make it to his quarters, get a message out to starfleet and warn them against a search and rescue. He would go down with his ship, just as his father had and cut off the cycle of whatever this was racing across the ship like wildfire.

 

First there had been the failed survey mission aboard the Red October that injured everyone involved followed closely by the disappear of people, records and things. Chapel, Hendroff, Chambers, Nelson and even Scotty, all up and vanished. Personal logs for those missing had been strangely deleted or corrupted upon opening the file. Then there was the misplacement and appearance of objects, comms, badges, even phasers but with no video evidence or witnesses to place them there or take them.

 

Everything had seemingly been working against him until Kirk had started receiving messages to his chair. It was odd, extremely so because he hadn’t given even one the codes to direct message him to his armrest. Only the most skilled engineer could have hacked through the jumbled mess of coding and the only person he knew could do it was missing. Or was he.

 

He had gotten the message just as they were about the relay a docking request for the Yorktown station, jarring him out of his mind so much that he stopped mid sentence in his dictation.

 

He glanced down and like some sort of glitch, text appears...incorrect, just a mash of numbers and letters but then another clearer message appeared on the screen. - Where am I?-

 

Kirk furrowed his brows then and starts to type a message of who is this when at the touch of his hand, static shocks him and sets off a new flurry of text.

 

-Captain! Sir! You’ve got ta go! TRUST NO ONE! Abandon ship! Abandon ship!-

 

Kirk’s brows lifted further as he tried to puzzle over who could have played such a prank when the text changed once more.

 

-Sir! You not safe where ya are. I canna get to you to help, but ya have to go, sir! Dunna stay any longer!-

 

Kirk’s eyes flashed at the words as he reread them. Canna? Dunna? Those were Scotty-isms if he ever heard one but if the Scotsman was texting him, where was he and where had he been?

 

The ship had gone haywire just when they noticed he was missing too. Navigation crashed, the helm, for lack of a better word, got sticky and the nacelles went completely offline. All of engineering descended into mayhem while the rest of operations searched for Montgomery.

 

Kirk would have thought that he made have been cuddled up and necking with Lt. Chambers somewhere if it weren’t for the other disappearances. That and the fact that she had already gone missing a day before. Uhura had been the last to see her and couldn’t say what might have happened to her. “ When I left Chambers was in her quarters, sir. She had fallen asleep and I didn’t want to disturb her further.”

 

“ That was sweet of you, Lt.” Kirk had told her when the Kenyan had given him a coy smile.

 

“ It was easy, when she was so sweet to me…”

 

It had been odd the way she said it but the whole crew had been off. Uhura had lingered, perhaps waiting to catch his gaze when he dismissed her. She might have had more information but as it was he could barely keep his mind on one problem before another popped up.

 

And all the things that had gone wrong with the impulse and warp engines, life support and all other systems had maintained their efficiency. It had been like the ship had deliberately stalled there travel while maintaining the rest of their needs.

 

Even with the operations fashioning solar sails to fit between the nacelles and power the impulse engines, the electricity gathered from the flexible panels still delayed their arrival by days. Days that were filled with tension, disappearances and low morale. Kirk could hardly blame his crew, he was tired of scratching his head for answers and waiting to give whoever it was wrecking havoc on his ship a piece of his mind. And maybe the broadside of a few photon torpedoes.  

 

“ Captain, awaiting your orders, sir.” Spock says briskly at his shoulder. The words aren’t out of the ordinary but the tone of his voice is. Kirk holds up a hand to the Vulcan and the others awaiting his word. “ Just a moment something very strange is going on here with my chair.”

 

A few chuckles bubble up around him but what comes from his first officer give hims pause.

 

Spock huffs, actually scoffs is a better word, at him with a growl and tells him his chair can wait.

 

The bridge goes silent with the exception of the Vulcan’s eerie vocalization as Kirk cuts his eyes at him. “ You wanna run that by me again, Commander?”

 

“ Your chair. Can wait.” he snarls. The PADD Spock holds behind his back cracks from the tight grip of his hand and sends pieces of glass and plastic spilling down onto the floor.

 

Kirk furrows his brows and starts to reply when the chair in question erupts in a series of whistles, chimes and alarms. Kirk glances down in confusion to read the words - Run- just as the red lights cut out and ship lurches to a full stop.

 

Kirk had been thrown from his chair when it happened and realizes what ever disembodied, Scotty like virus that had taken over his post saved his life. Rising up from the floor, Kirk saw his chair in pieces in the flashing white of the alert lighting. It was hard to see then and even harder to concentrate as screams and the thudding sound of bodies against metal filled the air and his ears.

 

He angled himself towards the turbolift, gaining brief glimpses of the bedlam that had descended on the bridge. He was nearly through when he had heard the first howl. It was unreal, nothing like he had heard out on the farm and forest of Iowa. At first he thought it was more than one creature, given the overlapping basal growl and shrieking squeal but one look behind him in the brief flash of light revealed a...beast that would have made the Grimm brothers piss themselves.

 

A pitch black pelt, piercing, neon eyes and ivory canines grow well beyond the confines of the its mouth, the beast nearly had Kirk freezing in his tracks. It roared again, shaking its massive head towards him with a jaw that could easily fit half of the Captain’s arm inside. While it stood up like a grizzly, the shape of it was all wrong to be a bear. What the fuck was that thing!? It looked like a wolf and a…

 

Another bang against the lift had Kirk smacking against the cab’s wall and back into the present situation. He had to make it to his quarters,...no med bay. He holds his side and recognizing the sharp pain of a cracked rib as he fights to catch his breath. As it was he had already called quarantine for all non essential crew but if the worse case scenario of ship wide evacuation were to arise he needed Bones’ approval and clearance for all the sick crew to board pods and be assigned with special retrieval instructions. Whatever the hell this pox was hanging over his ship, he didn’t want it spreading to another vessel or worse yet, the Yorktown.

 

The light flickers as the turbolift car bounces to a stop and releases him onto the medical bay floor. Its immediate that something is wrong. Where he thought there would be an empty hall there’s a crowd of people milling about aimlessly. There are a few on the floor as well as if they tried to make it either to the lift or to the bay doors but fell out beforehand.  

 

“ What the…”

 

The crewman nearest to him whips his head around...or what was left of his head and gurgles at him. Lieutenant Kyle. His operation reds were far darker than they should have been. Blood...but turned. It’s then that the stench hits Kirk’s nose and sends him choking back in towards the lift.

 

“ Lieu...what’s happening?” Kirk gags as the transporter operative. The sickly sweet scent of rotten flesh has the bile bubbling up in his throat. No, this can’t be true!

 

“ Kyle! Why…”

 

The crowd lurches towards the lift, while the more hindered creatures hobble or crawl. And the groaning, the wet, raspy barks they emit set Kirk’s teeth on edge. Kirk whips the turbolift lever to call for the cab to close as they come closer, giving up hope on reaching Bones.

 

If Bones is even still alive these _things_ roaming around. Kirk scans over the heads of the undead mass to spy a shadow moving across the dimly lit clinic windows. The door remains firmly shut but there is movement within the room but who or what is it?

 

“ Ugggaahhhhaaaa.”

 

The noise of his from operations lieutenant draws his attention and Kirk bangs against the lever once more. In a growing trend, Kirk struggles to barricade himself away from something hunting him.

 

“ Close dammit!” he growls yanking on the button as it slowly obeys his command. It’s nearly shut when Kyle’s gangrenous hands stop its progress and start to shove the lift back open. Kirk watches in horrified disgust as Kyle’s milky eyed head peers inside. He had just seen him not even 18 hours ago and now...he looks after he had been dead for more than 18 months.

 

Kyle catches Kirk scent and snarls through his half rotted maw at Kirk. As Kirk recoils the lieutenant's resolve to grab him is strengthened. Kirk jerks reflexively away from his clawing arm and launches his left foot into Kyle’s sternum. Where he thought the kick would send the lieutenant reeling backwards, backfires as his boot cracks through his chest and hangs there between his ribs.

 

“ Oh God!” the Captain, wails gagging once more. Kyle screeches into the air as Kirk wretches his foot to free it from his torso. “ So wrong!”

 

The reanimated crewman struggles to keep the door from closing around him and grabbing for Kirk’s leg with a noise that only serves to attract the others. Where it had only been Kyle in the doorway of the turbolift now several mangled faces and limbs appear in the dim glow of the emergency lighting.

 

“ The hell with this!”

 

Kirk pushes himself against the wall of the lift, using it as a brace as he kicked his other legs at the lieutenant’s head. Kyle goes careening backwards into the jerky crowd behind him and effectively clears the door. No longer hindered, the lift’s doors glide shut and seal Kirk safely back inside.

 

Kirk collapses onto the floor with a gasp. This couldn’t be happening. This can’t be real. How was he suppose to come back from this? All their enemies in the past had be on the outside whether alien or brass or mutant super humans but never the crew. How was he suppose to save them if there were already-

 

Jim shakes his head and rubs roughly at his face. No. Thinking like this will get him nowhere. If there’s someone, anyone aboard this ship to save and countless others he can keep away from this...whatever the hell this virus or containment is he would do it.

 

Engineering! From there he could be able to gain auxiliary control of the ship and need be inform the computer to start a self destruct sequence. It was the last thing he wanted to do but if he couldn’t locate whatever it was that had corrupted his chair and the beast that was laying waste to his bridge then evacuation follow by his ship’s destruction might be his best scenario. His only scenario...

 

Kirk starts to regain his footing when the turbolift lurch upward. He whips his head around as he sees the call box register for the bridge. He stumbles towards the lever and tries to cancel the call but it's to no avail. The lift whirls upwards towards God knows what and no amount of shouting at the computer can see to get it to stop. As a last ditch effort he yells at computer while yanking the lever. “ Officer’s quarters!”

 

By some stroke of luck the lift stops just as they approach the deck, opening to an empty corridor. He takes off down the hall and doesn’t look back.

 

\--------------

4 Days after the Red October….

 

Darwin adjusts the mirror at her door along with the broom straws at the threshold before letting herself in. It had been a long since she had taken up beseeching others on her behalf but as it was she was happy for the family’s creole backwood practices.

 

With the door secured the beta shift navigator went to her cupboard and searched through her spices. Nothing that had happened had been especially odd to her but everything going on aboard the Enterprise was wrong. Her suspicions were confirmed when folks started going missing and other people started displaying strange behaviors.

 

The first officer, a Vulcan had taken up eating more meat than a hound in the butchers and his normally passive ways had grown more in the way of aggression. Just today, he destroyed nearly half of the gym equipment and had half of the ship fawning over him. Beta at best, the Vulcan had been strangely alpha in most of his interactions. Most had adopted not looking him in the eye but as scary as the first officer had gotten the doctor was even worse.

 

McCoy seemed more likely to send someone to his medical bay than to treat them there. Chekov and numerous others had warned her away from his doors and there was a clear radius of empty seats when he took his lunch in the galley. Those who had been ordered to visit his clinic had returned looking shaken and sometimes worse for wear.

 

Nyota’s changes were more easy to spot. Friends since the academy, the two of them had struck up a close relationship over dreams, aspirations and the occasional crush. Along with Rand, Chambers and Gaila, the five of them had been a powerhouse for the top fleet ships. Of all of girls, Darwin felt that she knew Nyota the best. Charming, effervescent and determined to a fault, Uhura was as predictable as the sun rising in the morn but her normally cheerful disposition was replaced with something less tenacious and something more predatory.  

 

And then there was her beau. Chekov, poor, wisp of a man that he was, she loved that moon boy. But what came back from the Red October wasn’t him. The difference was immediate in her eyes, just as it was with the rest of the away team but she couldn’t put her finger on what exactly.

 

So she prayed. With songs, candles and a sacrifice Aisha Darwin made her intent know. At first she put forth rice and beans, next boudin with blood cooked in but where she made the most progress had been an ward bath.

 

The sonic shower stall doesn’t much lean itself for bathing but Darwin makes due with what she’s given. Whether she’s sitting, squatting or standing in the water doesn’t make a difference to a devil or angel. They’ll see and bless her all the same. The devils always want more though, favoring blood or use of the body for carnal pleasure or possession. She has no interest in them though her _granme_ told her their interest was always thick when it came to women.

 

Anointing herself with oil before standing under the rapid mist, she calls on the names her mama and them before her gave her to say. She prays for Pavel and others, seeks an exclamation of it all. As her _granme_ use to say,   _Them there ain’t right._ She was pleased to find that her prayers had been answered but God and his never work in the way you ought want them to.

 

With every passing cycle on the ship her sight of them became more clear. Wearing a charm that had been doused in the water and oil along with her, it had been hard to take in. Shadows were roaming the ship, of various shapes and sizes but for the away team, these pieces of amassed darkness clung to them like a cloak.

 

Spock’s is the most obvious when she sees him next. His eyes a bright yellow like honey and the shadow fall over him in the shape of a wolf. _Loup Garou_.

 

Funny, it seems that while the wolf is strong in him his mental discipline has kept the canine at bay. The more he meditates the more the black wolf within him submits to the domination of their will but the presence of Nyota and the orders of their Captain have him pulling at his lead. And that leash was wearing thin.

 

As terrible as the Vulcan seemed, Nyota and Bones frighten Darwin the most. The doctor didn’t have any light to him at all and Nyota...Nyota looked as beautiful as the moon. Where the doctor had grown dull and listless, the Kenyan had become dazzling in her charms. Her skin was luminescent, glowing just as bright and cool as la luna herself. The rest of her seemed just as imbued.

 

Her hair was shinier, her breasts more pert under her uniform and the way she moved...it was like watching her dance. Darwin wasn’t the only one to notice the sway of her walk and the lightness of her feet but she felt like she was the only one who know that Nyota was a _vanpir_.

 

Scotty had been gone missing before she had got a good look at him but Pavel was there...or actually wasn’t. She can’t explain the lack of opacity to his body or how when Chekov touches her he chills her skin. What was sitting at the navigation station, roaming the decks and sleeping with her at the end of their respective shifts had been the memory of him. His spirit came back with unfinished business but she’s afraid to ask what. She doesn’t know what he would say or if he would disappear all together.

 

Darwin finishes mixing the spices she gathered and walked the bowl back to the door. In a mix of Creole and standard, she throws the mix at and around the door. The cayenne sends her eyes watering but she grits through it even after it has her sneezing. Cleared of its contents she places the clay dish in the refresher and washes her hands.

 

She can sleep easy now knowing she has a bit of protection against what is wondering about.

 

The past few nights when she’s reviewed the monitor for her door and been left with a sense of being hunted. The first night shows the first officer stalking out in front of her door, sniffing and prowling.

 

It wasn’t until he noticed the 13 straws at her door was he rendered still. Voodoo queens around her way said that when Loup Garou was over someone they could only count to 12. Seeing 13 only makes them confused as they try and recall the number. Not until they’re called out from the task or the sun rises are the able to resists the frustrating arithmetic.

 

Who stirs the Vulcan out his remedial musing proves more interesting. Or disturbing.

 

Spock meets the doctor’s eye with an open scowl and the two exchange heated words. Faster than she can track the movements, McCoy’s hands are locked around Spock’s neck up against the wall adjacent to her door. Spock struggles for a bit before his body blurs into a...well, Darwin can’t be sure but it looks like a sehlat mixed with a wolf.

 

Darwin recalls the bile in her mouth as she watched the bipedal beast launch itself forward and onto the doctor. Leonard surprised her with his speed and strength, it wasn’t something the southern gent was known for, but against tooth and claw his human body was no match. Spock, the new wolven beast, stood above what was left of McCoy before pricking up his ears and scenting at the air. Whatever he picked up was of interest because he dropped onto all fours and loped after it.

 

As fantastical as his transformation was McCoy’s takes her breath away. The pile of him begins to tremble after Spock’s departure. Climbing and building up on top of itself, the mass of bones and flesh reforms and solidifies back into McCoy’s rugged frame. He stared up at her  monitor and the recordings screen snows for a moment before refocusing on McCoy staring at the mirror.

 

As so thought he would, the _M’su Diable_ ’s vanity had him stuck in front of his own image. She didn’t blame him in some ways. It was an unspoken agreement that along with the Captain and the first officer, the chief medical officer was one of the most handsome men in the fleet itself.

 

Stormy hazel eyes, light stubble lining his jaw and a tan that bespoke years in the sun, the CMO had many patients coming down with a case of a crush but the lean frame before her wasn’t the doctor.

 

Every now and then he would smile and speak to the camera, calling her by her first name and promising her a good time. “ I know you’re sweet on that Russian boy of yours but he don’t know nothing about courting a lady. Ain’t nothing he can give you darling, that I can’t give ya in spades, sugar.”

 

Hearing him speak, even through the speaker sent chills down her spine. Sugar? What the hell was that man on?

 

He kept it up switching from promises to threats and back again, concerning Darwin all the more. She wanted to send her findings to the Captain but security system asked for a higher clearance to do so. Maybe she could call Kirk to her now in her quarters? Hmm, it would solve her problem in one way but create a few others in its wake.

 

Sure Kirk might come down but what if he sends down his first officer instead to address her concerns. And her communiques would have to be routed through communications, where Nyota had access. A missive to the Captain marked as urgent was sure to peak her interest. If she doesn’t end up flagging the request for review and holding up its delivery then reading it is probably next on her list.

 

As for what to do about it all, she leaves that till after she wakes to the alarm.

When she does wake however it’s not to the alarm’s chiming but the doors. She glances at the clock and is surprised to see it’s 4:16 in the morning on Earth. What business did anyone have with her this early and while she was off duty?

 

Dragging her feet to the door, Darwin rubs her head and checks the monitor. There’s no one on the screen but she hears the door chime again. She opens the door manually and blinks up at Nyota in surprise. “ Ny?”

 

Nyota’s face breaks into a smile and temporarily stuns her. Her dark eyes glitter in the hall lighting and her teeth shine like pearls. “ Morning, Aisha.”

 

Darwin’s body rocks on its heels and leaves her dizzy. Woah, that was a bit much. She can’t recall ever swooning for anyone, let alone her one of her best girlfriends, like she had just then. It felt like Nyota’s eyes were boring into her. Her mind went blank for a moment and left her with only her words. A _Vanpir’s_ words, she reminds herself belatedly.

 

Darwin clears her throat and averts her gaze. “ More like night. What’s going on? I was asleep.”

 

Nyota braces an arm against her doorframe with a lackadaisical grin. “ I was just on the floor, off duty and wanted to say hi.”

 

Darwin shifts uneasily on her feet as she feels the charm at her chest warm her skin in warning.

 

All the light hearted gossip her neighborhood aunties took up while fixing dinner had always been taken with a grain of salt came rushing back to her. _You opened the door, girl. Resend her invitation!_ her mind whispered hoarsely.

 

“ Thanks for thinking of me but nobody’s invited in after hours in chateau de Darwin.” she jokes earnestly. She chose her words carefully, trying not to arouse Nyota’s suspicion that she might know who and what she was. Her delivery while possibly convincing, did not seem to sit while with Uhura.

 

“ Really? Don’t you remember all those late night chats we had back at the academy? C’mon girl, I just want to chill out and catch up!”

 

Again Uhura’s word sweep over her like a lover’s affection and pull at her desire. Yes catching up would be nice...they had such good times together...oh, just like that time Nyota told her about her first official date with Spock and she told her about her first kiss with Chekov...chill out...catch up...she would like that…

 

A bank of cold air wells up behind her shocks her out of her contemplation. Darwin shakes her head minutely and stares over at Nyota’s neck. She wants to asked about the oval row of angry looking teeth marks but the longer, Darwin stares the less she sees of them. Nyota tilts her head to meet her eyes but Darwin shifts her gaze down towards the ground and steps further into the room. “ Ny, that’s nice and all but I’m beat. I’m not inviting you in.”

 

Uhura’s smile fades as her intensity increases. “ That’s rude...is Chekov over or something?”

 

Darwin sighs and crosses her arms protectively over her chest. “ No but even if he was I would send him away too so I can sleep. It’s 4 in the morning, Ny! Why aren’t you snuggled up with your Vulcan?”

 

The mention of Spock has Nyota grinning again. She giggles to herself and bites at her lip with a huff. “ Spock’s on a walk of his own. Aisha, if I were ‘snuggled up’ with Spock right now, we wouldn’t be sleeping…”

 

Darwin scoff and mumbles. “ There are worse things I suppose but I’m going back to bed. Let’s meetup later in the galley for a meal with Rand between shifts, okay?”

 

“ The time to meet and eat is now.” Uhura says none too firmly. The communications chief’s posture has changed, going from carefree to crouching. If Darwin didn’t know any better she would say Nyota wanted to pounce her but with her invitation into her home resended, there’s no way to know for sure. Darwin starts to look up and observe her face when the lights within her room flicker brightly and go dark. Nyota’s attention diverts from Darwin to the room behind her and scowls inside. “ I thought you said Chekov wasn’t over.”

 

Darwin furrows her brows as a frown pulls at her mouth. “ He’s not.”

 

“ Then who is that behind you?”

 

Before Darwin can turn a hand comes around and over her mouth. She gasps against the hold watches in wide eyed terror as the door slams closed, barring Nyota outside and trapping her within.

 

\-----------

6 days after the Red October….

 

Spock draws another ragged breath and huffs through his nose. He is Vulcan. He is enlightened by logic and a philosophy of nonviolence. He rules his emotions, not the other way around. He is...losing his mind.

 

He tightens the clasp of his hands as he steeples fingers and forces himself to review all of what he can remember. It’s not much but it gives him a measure of calm to do something habitual.

 

For the first time in his life, his eidetic memory has failed him. He focuses on the night it started, when he was aboard the Red October. It was cold, he recalls his breath in the air of the ship being highlighted by his headgear. He was searching the vessel, looking for clues as to what might have happened for speculation when he calls Sulu giving a sound off request.

 

He follows and proceeds to march further in towards where he thinks the Captain quarters lie from the display affixed to the interior hull. There was a scream. His beloved. Nyota calls him and through their bond he can feel her terror. It chills him more than he deemed possible with his _venlinahr_ practice but he clings to it so he can find her.

 

Spock screws up his face as he wrestles his mind to display the rest. He groans with effort but is rewarded with a bit more than the last time he tried. It comes to him in flashes, like holopix on a fast review but catches what he can.

 

Him running...he finds her...she is under attack and he jumps in to rescue her. The dark mass drops her and she thuds to the ground limp and unmoving...he is scared for her wellbeing...it enrages him...he lashes out but the darkness dissipates into mist...it surrounds him...it fills him...he falls…

 

Spock wakes up and his world has changed...brighter, more smelly, electric in its movements...he returns to his quarters dazed...pacing until Nyota returns and then he blacks out once more...he wakes again and the room is a mess of shredded cloth and broken furniture...Nyota lays above him, sleeping in the cradle of his arms with him still inside her...he is shocked...he is frightened......

 When he comes to the room is just as it should be...his bed is no longer a nest of mattress fluff and warped metal but pristine and neatly made as he always keeps it...Nyota is smiling at him and dressed for their shift...he cannot recall either of them fixing the wreckage or even how they destroyed it all…

 Nyota is speaking to him in their quarters...she is alluring and different from their mission as well...tantalizingly dominant and defiant...he is over her once more and the two of them fight to top the other...they resume again in the bathroom...whenever she is near he cannot help the change he feels. Work is enough to distract him but by the end of his duties his patience is worn thin and hunger and the need to release his energy can no longer be denied.

 Day after day he roams the halls and raids the mess hall replicators. Pound after fleshy pound Spock gorges himself until the hunger leaves him. It worked until Chapel crossed his path...she came to him smiling and offering food and his mouth salivated at her scent...he awakes to the taste of plomeek, polyester and the scent of her skin in his mouth and freezes in horror...what had he done? He can’t remember but whatever’s inside him that steal away his memory knows very well...and after Chapel’s visit a bloodlust falls upon him...he cannot shake it but he can restrain it with the same discipline he uses to harness his emotions...but it is not an emotion and it grows much more powerful in each passing day...he fears that sometime soon he won’t be able to separate himself from it.

 Spock feels himself losing control and he doesn’t know where he’ll find himself next...or where whatever it is will take over. McCoy could not help him. The darkness inside the doctor seeks to end him and any other being aboard the ship infected with the same plague but Spock wants to find a cure.

 Science was fact and the beginning and end to his logic. There were no such things as magic and witchcraft but there still were unexplained phenomenons. Spock just had to stay in control of himself long enough to pick up where Scotty left off decrypting the files for clues as to their salvation. A rippling wave of energy rolls over him and pitches Spock forward onto his hands and knees. He pants into the air as he moans for relief but the hunger inside rides him.

 

He feel the change falling over him as if there was something climbing over his skin. He hears his jaw crack and his teeth click within his mouth as his vision dims to black and white. His breath bellows loudly as his chest deepens and expands along with his skeleton. Growing in an exorbitant rate, Spock's nails click along the metal flooring before digging into it with a metallic whine.

 

“...I...am Vulcan…” he chokes out. His tongue does not want to cooperate as he mangles the words. It length has tripled and has stretched itself thinner than normal.  He falls forward onto his face and groans aloud once more. “ I am...in control...I am Vulcan.”

 

His spine pops audibly in the quiet of his room until he feels it brush against his feet with the tickle of fur surrounding it. He yells in agony and feels his canine grow down past the casing of his lips. “ No...Noooaarghh….”

 

He has to focus! Fight this beast within him. He is not this creature! He is...he is….he…

 

Spock wails into the air as his mind begins to revert to its baser nature. He hisses in pain as a sheath encases his lok and his bone crack into a new alignment. In all the memories he can retrieve there was never this pain before. He had just been and then the darkness that collected within him took over. It must be his will to fight the change then.

 

Spock shuts his eyes and focuses on the image of him within his mind. This is how he look, this was his face and his body. Not this wolven sehlat monstrosity. He is not an animal!

 

“  Neehhhoooodaaa.” he croons into the air for his bondmate. His body is aflame and at war with itself as it is pulled by two separate wills to follow. “ NeeeOOOOOOooo…”

 

He snaps his muzzle shut and shakes his massive head in disgust. If this is what his mind kept from him then he wishes not to remember. He whines along the floor and starts to wallow in defeat when the klaxon bells sound over the alarm system. Yellow alert.

 

-Attention all crew and personnel, this is Captain Kirk. This is a yellow alert calling for all the ship’s non essential personnel to report to their quarters for a ship wide quarantine. Alpha shift and bridge crew and supports for missing members please report to your stations for duty. Repeat, alpha shift report to your stations and all non essentials report to your quarters. More information to follow as deemed necessary. Kirk out.-

 

Spock held on to Kirk’s voice using it batter down the other presence inside him. By the end of five minutes he has returned to his form but lays unconscious on the floor.

 

It’s Nyota’s frantic prodding through their bondlink and her insistent hands at his shoulders that bring him back to the present. “ Spock! Spock? Are you ok?! Oh god.”

 

Nyota, sweet halfling of his soul and heart. It aches his body to do so but he pulls her down into his arms. “ Nyota.”

 

She holds him back checking him over for injuries. “ What the hell happened to you? I felt...I don’t know. It was like you were in the middle of a fight or something.”

 

He blinks over at her and pauses. What has happened? What did happen? He can’t...remember?

 

“ I cannot recall the events after commencing my meditation.” he answers truthfully though it hurts to admit it once more. “ Be that as it may, I am well.”

 

“ Are you sure you’re well enough to report to report for duty? We were called for a yellow alert and I came down here after you didn’t answer Kirk’s hails to check on you.”

 

Spock feels his side ache at the concern written across his bondmate’s face. She is so lovely. “ I will be fine. Let me dress and we’ll depart.”

 

“ The Captain ordered me to check in on engineering before reporting back to my post. M’Ress is in until I report back. Kiss me before you go.”

 

A vague notion of a smile crosses over his face as his knits their hands together in Vulcan intimacy. Nyota tilts her head in question and he answers with a series of images that make her blush. Not that he doesn’t want to kiss he but he fears that it won’t stop there. “ I will kiss you later but for now we both have this.”

 

She nods and bites her lip. “ I look forward to it. I’m...I’m worried.”

 

“ There is nothing to be afraid of. Do you not like goosebumps?”

 

Nyota chuckles lightly before having her mouth fall back into a frown. “ I do but not when I actually think that someone will get hurt.”

 

-Lieutenant? Have you found Mr. Spock?-

 

Nyota hurries over to the intercom and clicks the receiver button. “ Aye, sir. We’re on our way.”

 

Spock start to turn towards his dresser but pauses to attend to her. Nyota takes his hand gladly but he can feel her need to see to her duties. With his safety now addressed, Nyota wants to leave for her tasks. Normally he would not have her dally but the tension he feels inside her must be put at ease. He can’t really say why he feels that it is urgent that he does so just that he needs to. After a moment he favors her with an inside joke concerning their dear Captain. “ Do not do anything I would not do.”

 

She actually laughs then and gives his hand an affectionate squeeze. “ That does not limit the possibilities.” she retorts in Spock’s customary response. It pleases him. She pleases him.

 

“ Endeavour to stay safe, K’diwa.”

 

“ I will. I’ll be looking out for you.”

  
And that is the last thing Spock can remember until she’s standing across from him on the bridge with the Captain in between them. With a phaser locked on both of their positions, set to kill.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How does it end!? Will Kirk find a way out? Will Spock be engulf by the beast? Who took Darwin? What will Nyota do? Find out in the next and last chapter!


	4. Undelivered messages

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The secrets of the Red October come to light but even then some details remain in the dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please please please go read and review Tom Foolery Prime's beautiful stories ya'll. It's an honor to gift her with something and one day I'll actually write a story that I think will live up to her great writing skills :D

**_One Month before the Red October’s discovery_ **

 

Captain’s Log Stardat *static*

 

This is Cap*static* of -*static*, or what’s left of it. I don’t have much time...they’re still hunting me and I feel the infection or whatever the hell this shit is coming over me. 

 

We were on a survey mission to scout outlying Kepler planets that could be used for terraforming or mining when the rogue 616 caught our eye. Spectacular in size and with no apparent claim over it, we sent a probe that returned with varied favorable findings. 

 

I should have suspected something then...when everything we were looking for, outside of a young star to orbit around, was reported to be on the planet with the no signs of life. *static*

 

Our away team went to the planet’s surface *static* detected oxygen so *static* so foolish…

 

*static* retrieved the team and their memories along with all our instruments were compromised. We planned to try again, learn from our mistakes and try for a more valid sensor readings, when the members of the away team *static* creatures roaming in the halls, fornicating in public *static* -officer ate someone right in front of me-*static* things that weren’t really there *static* mutiny 

 

You train to be prepared for any and everything but you never really are...Sailing through space isn’t anything crossing the ocean. The ocean is inanimate but space...the dark matter...it’s conscious…

 

No one’s survived long enough outside of a suit to know it’s effects...but this stuff, that thing...it makes red matter look like a nothing. It’s like trying to compare Risa to a supermassive black hole, heaven to hell-

 

*static* changes you, warps your DNA and gives rise to something new but *static* for lack of a better word, it’s evil and it*static* your fear *static* irreversible. Do not attempt to board or rescue.

 

I repeat, it’s too late...wait...No! NO! NO! GET OUT OF-*static* Ahhh! No!*static*

 

\- End Log-

 

\-----------

_ One month and 6 days later after the Enterprise’s exploratory search of the Red October _

 

The long snarling muzzle comes closer with the heat of its breath rolling over Kirk’s face. With another long, loud sniff the beast suddenly stops its growling and withdraws its head from the space. 

 

Both Janice and Jim sag against each other with an quiet sigh in relief…

 

Until a huge furred arm reaches in and snags them both from their hiding place. 

 

Janice screams and flails against everything she can touch while Kirk yells in protest, trying to wrangle himself free of its grip. 

 

The two of the them a hauled out and hang wriggling by a single foot upside down before...it. The beast from the bridge.

 

Sniffing at them both, it roars and has them rushing to cup their ears as the wince in pain. In addition to it being loud, the beast’s smell and appearance are equally overwhelming. Jim’s eyes blink wide open after the noise dies away and hangs his mouth. The creature tilts its head towards him and leaves Kirk jerking his arms to get away from it. “ Whooa-holy shit!”

 

The Captain’s response has it snarling and Janice wailng into the air as she flails in its grip. “ What is it?! Oh God, what is it?!”

 

When it snaps its jaws shut once more it looks between them, clearly mulling over what to do first and to whom. Glancing at Rand, he (it’s very clearly a male), sets off a fresh peals of terrified screaming from her and seems to make his decision. 

 

Nosing his snout across her, the wolven bear of a monster tests her taste with a long slimy lick up her leg, huffing with interest at his findings. Oblivious to her increasing distress and Kirk’s shouts for the creature to stop, the beast opens his maw and angles the yeoman’s shoulder over his tongue.

 

“ Oh God! Please don’t eat me! Help! No! Please God, no!” the thin yeoman cries out as she tries to hold his jaw open as he pushes her slowly towards his mouth. In a fit of desperation, Kirk kicks repeatedly at the paw-like hand crushing his ankle and is finally rewarded with the beast releasing his leg, sending him crashing down onto the ground with a thud that had him seeing stars. 

 

When he’s able to focus once more Kirk sees the beast turn its large growling face away from where he lays crumpled on the floor back to the screaming woman in hand. He’s just about to look for somewhere to fight it when out of the eerie red lighting of the hallway another beast appears and tackles the were-creature to the ground. An enraged howl rings out between them as the other strikes out for the first creature’s throat and hits his shoulder instead.

 

In a flurry of fur and teeth the two of them continue to tussle and Janice takes off in the other direction towards her quarters. Kirk shakes his head violently and reaches out towards her from where he lies down hobbled on the floor.“ Rand! NO! Wait!” 

 

She shouldn’t go that way! Other than the lift behind him, Kirk knows that the only other way off the deck is in the opposite direction from where’s she’s turning! Beyond that, they should endeavor to stick together! 

 

“ Janice!” he yells, staggering back to his feet. “ Janice, come back!”

 

How she would even begin to, Kirk has no clue. The two mutant looking sehlat’s before him take up the width of the corridor with their vicious brawling. Jim takes a step back as one of them bellows in pain and snaps its saber toothed jaws as the one above him sinks its ivory tusks down into its shoulder. 

 

After a few moments the one below goes still and silent and the other pants above him in triumph. Jim swallows as its massive head swings back towards him and growls. It takes a measured step forward and pads towards him, ignoring the new shrieks of the yeoman from somewhere back in the distance. Jim grinds his teeth and sniffs angrily at the thought of her loss and steels himself for what he has to do next.

 

He bolts.

 

The sound of the beast is immediate and it’s nearly on him when Kirk rolls over to the right and out of the way. The beast tries to slow its speed but there’s not even hallway and he goes sailing into the open turbolift with a floor quaking thud. It groans and starts to rise with his unfocused gaze settling on the Captain when the door slides close.

 

Kirk exhales in review and staggers back towards the other lift. “ I’ll take my chances.”

 

Taking chances, however, doesn’t alter one’s fate.

 

When Kirk arrives on the bridge, there’s already someone occupying his chair. 

 

\----------

 

“ Lt. Darwin?”

 

Kirk steps cautiously off of the lift and onto the bridge and studies her stances as she faces the cracked and bloodied viewscreen. Said panel flickers intermittently with strange runes racing across the fractured surface. Every few seconds standard appears but it’s nothing that Kirk can discern. 

 

The navigator has yet to acknowledge him and remains rigidly seated in his chair, swiveled towards the screen. She’s so still, Kirk wonders if she’s even breathing.

 

“ Lieutenant…?” Kirk calls out more warily, picking up a phaser discarded on the floor, near once was a crew member. He couldn’t have been gone from the bridge for twenty or so minutes but it looks as if they had taken on a horde of Klingons it’s so gruesome. 

 

He steps closer and the lieutenant finally moves, albeit fitfully. “ Ca..Keptein….?”

 

Kirk snaps to attention as Chekov’s voice comes out of Darwin’s body. “ Chekov? Is that...Oh my God!”

 

With next to no warning, Darwin’s stiff body goes limp and levitates up and off of the chair. The air around her goes uncomfortably cold and Kirk watches her hover above him through the cloud of his breath. “ What…? Seriously, what the hell is going on here?”

 

“ Vat Hell, indeed. Ewil hes boarded dis ship and no one is safe. Including yourself, Keptein.” Darwin replies in her partner’s voice. “ I can’t help myself and Darwin is as safe as she keen be but you, Keptein, need to take dis to for your protection.”

 

By unseen forces, the necklace around her shoulders drifts up and hovers in the air towards him. Kirk holds his breath and watches the woven piece of jewelry floating from over the barrel of his phaser. It’s nearly to him when the turbo lift swishes open and the creature he trapped on there earlier comes bursting into the room. The viewscreen goes blank with a deafening roar of static and flashes the words - RUN - in standard over and over across the length of it. 

 

Kirk moves without thinking dodging the beasts as it crashes headlong into pedestal leg of his chair. The black blur goes tumbling forward until he connects with the panel of the helm console. 

 

“ Go, Keptein! Run!” Darwin shouts as she comes to the floor and goes after the beast. Kirk yells after her to come along as the creature rises to its feet with an angry snort. Darwin launches herself into the air with a mighty cry and is swatting down to the floor with quick blow of the were-creature’s paw. 

 

Kirk looks on in horror and readies his weapon as the creature comes over her in a pleased snarl. It’s reaching for her throat when her eyes snap open and a long rush of wind bellows out of her and in through his nose. In an instant, the beast reels back and seizes into a coughing, whining fit. 

 

As it convulses on the floor, Kirk runs towards Darwin to help up off of the floor. “ Darwin, c’mon! Move! Let’s go!” 

 

The viewscreen and alarms continue to screech into a fever pitch, continually flashing the command for him to run. Kirk ignores it as he continues to pull on the limp arm of his navigation officer to try and hook it around his neck. “ C’mon! I got you let’s-”

 

In a split second Kirk goes from standing over Darwin to being pitches across the room. He collides with the science console and bounces down onto the floor face first. His chest wheezes at the double impact, leaving him winded and out of sorts as he tries to regain his feet.

 

Something is standing over him and for a moment he thinks it’s Darwin as his vision blurs in and out of focus. Upon closer inspection, his eyes come to rest on the dimly lit face of his communication officer. “ Uhura?”

 

She smiles brilliantly at the sound of her name and Kirk finds himself paralyzed by the sight of it. He pulls at his limbs but gains nothing more than a minute jerk of his torso.

 

Uhura bends down and lifts him with a single hand. “ Captain. You look like you’ve seen better days.” 

 

Kirk stares at her incredulously as she fists the collar of his tunic in her hands and holds him up off of the floor with a strength that would rival a Vulcan’s. “ Even with bruises you’re still gorgeous as ever, Jim.”

 

Uhura...flirting….with  _ him _ ?! Kirk tries again to move his body and succeeds in grabbing a hold of her hand at his uniform. 

 

She laughs and lowers him onto the console and proceeds to climb on top of him. Once again the sight of her eyes has him locked in place and unable to move. The scream of the alarm goes into the background and the static of the intercom grows more spastic. The white noise takes on a familiar tone but Kirk can’t make out anything out. It almost sounds like-

 

Her fingers brush across his neck causing him to jerk and lose his focus. As their skin makes contact, Kirk is shocked by how cold she feels. She looks warm, her cheeks and lips are still rosy but the fingers she keeps at his collarbone feel as if she had held it under ice water.

 

“ Uhu..ra...why are you doing this?...what happened…to-?” he wheezes up towards her face. Uhura stares at him afterwards and for moment he thought himself safe.  Slowly she dips her head towards his ear and whispers against the shell of it. He notes for the first time that she’s taken a breath since he’s seen her.  “ Survival of the fittest. I. evolved. Beyond you…”

 

Her mouth opens and chills his skin as she exhales with a dry lick of his skin. “ Don’t worry...I’ll help you along-”

 

Nyota’s teeth are just pinching his skin when they’re flipped and thrown onto the floor. The roar that follows makes it clear who or rather what attacked them. Nyota abandons him to subdue the werebeast and gives as good as she gets. Kirk scrambles up from the floor, limping fitfully as he hurries over to the phaser. 

 

He locks the phaser at the ready and sets it to kill just as Uhura flies up over head from an angry toss of the creature that was once Spock. 

 

With a white knuckle grip on the phaser, Kirk stands between them and levels the phaser to lock onto their positions. “ Freeze! Both of you! Nobody move!”

 

Nyota scoffs but remains still while the werewolf-like Spock growls and raises his hackles. When neither one steps closer, Kirk takes a breath and gesture at the two of them. “ Either you two tell me what the hell is going on or I’m starting the self destruct sequence. Now.”

 

Spock snarls and comes down onto all fours with a voice that Kirk can barely discern. “ It is too late for such explanations Captain. The ship is lost along with its crew. You cannot start what has begun here.”

 

“ Bullshit!” Kirk shouts, training his weapon at his massive head. “ We don’t even know what’s it is and-”

 

“- No you don’t know what it is Kirk but I do.”

 

Spock and Kirk turn their heads to look at Nyota as she holds her head up in defense with a smirk across her face. “ You’ll only be able to shoot one of us before the other is on you and even if you were to kill us both you’d never get through the rest of us.”

 

She licks her lips and nods over in Spock’s directions. “ So who’s it going to be, me or him?”

 

Kirk shakes his head and draws up the phaser to get a better view over the barrel. “ Neither thanks. I’ll take my chances.”

 

Uhura’s mouth breaks into a full throated laugh and it’s then he can see the fangs extending down from her canines. “ I was hoping you’d say that. There are no win-win scenarios, Kirk.”

 

From some unspoken signal, the pair of them rush towards him and the last thing Kirk’s sees is the discharge flash of his phaser before darkness engulfs him. 

 

\-------------

Captain’s Log, Stardate 1

 

Having commandeered the ship, after politely moving the Captain aside, I, Nyota Uhura am Chief Commander of this vessel. 

 

It will take a lot of work to get this ship into prime, operating condition but I have the utmost faith in my loyal first officer, Mr. Spock. 

  
As the former Captain James T. Kirk, recuperates in McCoy’s medbay, we eagerly await his evolution and his service on this vessel as the Enterprise’s Chief Engineer as we have lost Montgomery Scott to...unforeseen circumstances *static*

 

We are still operating with a skeleton crew - no pun intended - and in dire need of replacements. We plan to do so once we dock at the Yorktown in less than 3 hours.

 

*static* Uhura out

 

\-----------

 

Nyota jerks and rolls from the couch to the floor with a clamorous thud. Spock, who was asleep beside her, startle upright and stares at her from cushion. “ Nyota…?”

 

“ Oww.” she moans, rubbing her the back of her head. She looks around the scene before her and remember they had been watching a movie not long again on the holo drive. The tinny ring of her comm system alerts her to an incoming message. “ Hold on, Spock.” she says, rising up from the floor to take the call. “ Uhura here.”

 

“ Uhura.” Kirk’s voice booms over the speaker. “ I need you and Spock here in my ready room, ten minutes ago.” 

 

“ Yes, sir. Sorry, sir. Right away.” she fumbles racing for her uniform and boots.

 

“ Kirk out.”

 

Spock stretches leisurely against the back of the couch before moving into action to dress alongside her. As she draws on her underwear, Nyota bites at her lip and kicks her feet into her boots. “ I don’t remember falling asleep.”

 

Spock pauses in buckling his pants and tilts his head thoughtfully. “ Curious. Neither can I.”

 

They are quiet then, each busy with their own thoughts and trying to quell the irrational fear welling up in each of them. As they exit the room, Chekov is passing by speaking with Scotty about the news that an abandoned ship has been found in orbit around the rogue planet with a distress signal detected. 

 

Nyota turns to Spock with a smile and a shrug. “ That doesn’t sound scary.”

 

“ Fear is illogical.” he replies readily but he doesn’t seem convinced of his own word.

 

Nyota boards the turbolift after them and turns the level for the bridge. “ It is but it’s also instinctual. It keeps you alive.” 

 

Back in her cabin, Nyota’s comm chimes with another message, just in text with no sender.

  * R U N  -



**Author's Note:**

> As always I want to know you're thoughts and what you think of the story. Quickly let me know also if the jumping around is getting too confusing.


End file.
